Notes on the Staging of Frank V by Fernando Peixoto (São Pedro Theater, 1973)

Abstract

This article analyses the play Frank V, staged by Fernando Peixoto in 1973 in Sao Paulo. Research undertaken in this study assembled documents concerning the theatrical production and interviews with artists engaged in it, as well as published critiques. This dramaturgy by Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt was chosen by a commission that selected the repertoire of the Sao Pedro Theater. The decision was based on the fact that the script permitted analogies with the Brazilian economic situation and the purported “economic miracle” being promoted by the civil-military dictatorship. The paths by means of which this staging highlighted national issues, dialoguing with the Bertolt Brecht´s epic theater, is discussed in this text. Frank V represented a landmark in Peixoto´s artistic maturation as well as that of the Sao Pedro troupe. At the same time, it exposed the obstacles faced by Brazilian politicized theater in the early 1970s – difficulties in attracting audiences, financial crisis, pressure from censorship, doubts about the social place occupied by art.