São Paulo – A theater play that brings to the stage a little of the lives of refugees in the city of São Paulo will be staged next month in the São Paulo state capital. “São Paulo Refúgio” (São Paulo Refuge) is a fragment of the lives of these immigrants, covering challenges that are both personal or faced collectively. The play will be staged at Sesc Belenzinho on April 20 to 22.
Put together by the group Performatron, the play was created from interviews with refugees, talks with organizations that work with them, contact with Syrian immigrants that go to mosques and even drama classes taught to refugees by members of the theater company. Despite the play being a collective creation, the final script is signed by the artist Conrado Dess, who also plays a character and direct the play.
The director is a student of performing arts at São Paulo University (USP) and the group was created based in his wish of covering refuge as a topic. Starting from his personal contact network, Dess found other artists willing to study this topic. Conversations started on September 2014, rehearsals started in February of last year and in November the first performances were staged.
The scenes bring out life fragments of the refugees based in their testimonies as well as situations that the majority of them experience under immigration or testimonies of the actors themselves on the topic. According to Dess, the goal was to give the public a more personal vision, to change, in people’s mind, the image of the refugee as someone distant and only present in statistics, as they are portrayed in the media. “They are human beings that are facing challenges”, says the director.
The play “São Paulo Refúgio” already played at Teatro Leopoldo Fróes, at Museu da Imigração and at Casa das Rosas, all of them in the city of São Paulo. After Sesc Belenzinho, the group doesn’t have any more presentations scheduled, but plans to get more dates and places for the play in São Paulo and other states, according to Dess.
Besides Conrado Dess, the other actors in the play are Elise Garcia, Ériko Carvalho and Tresor Muteba. Pitchou Luambo participated in the creation. Luambo and Muteba are from Congo. Besides the presentations, the group already participated in open debates on the transformation of the artistic scene in the city of São Paulo in view of the current migrant backdrop.
The presentation at Sesc Belenzinho was scheduled after an invitation by the organization. The play takes place at Sala de Espetáculos II and admission is free.
Play “São Paulo Refúgio” (São Paulo Refuge)
April 20 to 22, 2016
On April 20 (Wednesday) and 22 (Friday), at 9:30 PM – On April 21 (Thursday, a holiday), at 6 PM
Sesc Belenzinho, rua Padre Adelino, 1000 – São Paulo – SP
Admission free (tickets available one hour before the play)
Further information: http://www.sescsp.org.br/programacao/89441_SAO+PAULO+REFUGIO
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
