Telling and singing on the stage: the music on Arena conta Zumbi

Abstract

We aim at analyzing how the music is a fundamental element in the structuring of the play Arena conta Zumbi. The work deals with an historical crossroad: connected to the history of Zumbi dos Palmares and also to the pre-sent moment of the staging, when the country was under the weight of the military dictatorship. The play materializes the intention of enabling the public to reflect on the loss of freedom and the possibility of resistance to oppression. In order to achieve it, Teatro de Arena largely resort to the song, element that appears throughout the history of the theater whose use is especially significant in Brecht’s work, important benchmark in the construction of political theater.