Bortolotto premieres new show at Espaço dos Satyros

Every now and then, some voice insists on hailing Mário Bortolotto as Plínio Marcos' heir. No wonder. The ostracized figures are always there. The caustic dialogues too. Bortolotto himself never gave much credence to this comparison. "I always thought it was nonsense." But he recognizes "Deve Ser do C... o Carnaval em Bonifácio" (Carnival in Bonifácio Must Be Awesome), a play that opens today, as an exception. "Perhaps this text is the closest to Plínio's," he says.

That's because here we're not dealing with the characters we usually see in the author's work. "Unlike my other characters, who exclude themselves on their own, here they are truly excluded. And they want to be included," observes the playwright, who also directs the current version.

In the play, written in 2001, we follow the encounter of a trio of outcasts: two siblings (Katiana Rangel and Rodrigo Cordeiro), and an older man (Eduardo Chagas). None of them have many prospects. They are on the margins of the margins. And they cling, with some desperation, to what seems to be the only possibility of escape.

After meeting a Frenchman, Sister Bel makes plans to move out of the country. Locked in a room, the three of them discuss the possibility of going together towards their new life.

Almost all the action takes place during Carnival. But the festive atmosphere, which occurs outside the confines of the scene, only serves as a counterpoint to the melancholy that pervades the dialogue. Another similarity to the universe of the author of "Navalha na Carne": the constant oscillation between virulence and tenderness. "As also exists in the characters of Abajur Lilás," the director points out. (Information from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.)

It must be from C... Carnival in Bonifácio
Espaço dos Satyros 2 (Praça Roosevelt, 134)
Tel. (011) 3258-6345. 5th, at 21 pm. R$ 20
Until 15/12.