Grupo X1X; Pericles and Perepeteia

I had visited Grupo X1X during my first tour round the Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Rio triangle. I had met the men of the group at their base in Vila Maria Zelia, Belem, Sao Paulo.

It is a village of old delapidated buildings in the East of Sao Paulo that used to house the Jute workers in the 19th century. The theatre itself is an empty room full of a sense of the past. 

The women of the group and the director, Luiz are touring with the play, Hysteria. By chance, I will encounter it when I am in Belo Horizonte.  It has been touring for several years, including a visit to the Barbican in London. The play's success is justly deserved.  During the performance, the men and the women are separated and the all female cast interact with the women in the audience. I have now seen a number of plays in Portuguese and often my shortcomings in the language mean I miss out. Here, it is the language of theatre that really speaks, actors and audience combining and moving in the space, making a bridge with the emotions and stories of the past, and us, now, here, in the present. So it is with great pleasure that I return to work with the group in Sao Paulo. We are looking at scenes from Pericles. Luiz, the director, is interested for the group to work with Shakespeare text, since many of the actors in the group have origins in working with the Shakespeare. The groups usual processes work with improvisation, group collaboration and found historical texts.  However, their next production, The Ice Boat, includes extracts from Chekhov.  I am working with Barbara Heliodora's translation of Pericles. We focus on key words. We find meanings and sensations in the repetition, games and stories between the actors. Ronaldo, Janaina, Paulo Celestino, Tatiana, Luiz and Paulo are wonderful sensitive people and I hope we meet again.

In this moment, I am deepening my understanding of Perepeteia, in the story of Pericles, but also in life.