Plays
A poet with full mastery of writing and imagery use of words, the theater would be a natural path for someone, like Vinicius, that had so such aesthetic curiosity. Like music and poetry, the theater is present in his life since the school years, a time when he invariably took part in children’s plays at the end of the year.
Nevertheless, it is only in 1956 that Vinicius accomplishes and presents to the public his first theater project. The play Orpheus of the Conception is an adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus into the suburban routine of Rio de Janeiro. The history of Vinicius serves as the backdrop for the realization of the script of Black Orpheus, a film of Marcel Camus that would be a prizewinner in Cannes and at the Oscar in 1959. A great performance, with the participation of names like Tom Jobim, Carlos Scliar and Oscar Niemeyer, the play becomes a milestone in the Brazilian theater.
In the following decades, Vinicius, even widely spaced, continues his career as a playwrighter. He writes three plays, plus a musical with dramaturgy. The pieces are “Procura-se uma Rosa” (Rose Wanted), 1962, “Cordélia e o Peregrino” (Cordelia and the Pilgrim), 1965 and “Chacina em Barros Filho” (Slaughter in Barros Filho), 1964, which would be staged in 1974, in Salvador, with the title of “As Feras” (The Beasts).
His musical performance is “Pobre Menina Rica” (Poor Little Rich Girl), in which he stages some passages alongside Carlos Lyra and Nara Leão, in 1962. Despite seeing his plays published and some of them, like Orpheus, becoming
landmarks of the Brazilian theater, Vinicius’s dramaturgy does not reach the same strength as his poems, writings and songs. Even so, there is no way of talking about the
history of modern theater in the country without going through the texts and ideas we present here to the reader.
His musical performance is “Pobre Menina Rica” (Poor Little Rich Girl), in which he stages some passages alongside Carlos Lyra and Nara Leão, in 1962. Despite seeing his plays published and some of them, like Orpheus, becoming
landmarks of the Brazilian theater, Vinicius’s dramaturgy does not reach the same strength as his poems, writings and songs. Even so, there is no way of talking about the
history of modern theater in the country without going through the texts and ideas we present here to the reader.