Religious Rituals: Cultural Identity & Resistance
Theater as Ritual
Director Cleydson Catarina defines what Teatro Terreiro Encantado does as a form of teatro ritualístico (ritualistic theater), which entails the incorporation of popular traditions with religious significance into a theatrical setting. In their one act play, Auto do Negrinho, the Afro-Brazilian popular traditions they share with the audience include candomblé, capoeira, congada, and syncretic religious practices tied to Catholicism. Rituals play a central role in these cultural and religious traditions and serve as a way to share myths, comment on moral values, preserve histories, and commune with the divine. The actors have personal connections with many of these traditions as practitioners in their everyday life or having contact with them through their family and local communities.
Negrinho do Pastoreio Myth
In the context of the play, the myth of the Negrinho do Pastoreio is told through these popular traditions. In this folktale with African and Catholic influences that can be traced back to the 19th century, an enslaved young boy suffers at the hands of a cruel farmer and his family. The farmer asks him to take care of some horses, but when he is unable to capture a lost horse the farmer punishes him with many lashes, throws him on an anthill, and leaves him for dead. However, the next day the farmer comes across the boy riding the lost horse with the Virgin Mary by his side with no visible injures on his body. Different versions of the myth have been retold throughout Brazil, but the core narrative stays the same, of a young Black male who survives the violence of slavery through the divine protection of the Virgin Mary.
Teatro Terreiro Encantado brings the myth of the Negrinho do Pastoreiro to life with rituals tied to the Congada tradition, Afro-Catholic saints, and the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira and in doing so, conjures axé (the life force or divine energy usually tied to Afro-Brazilian spiritual practices) into the theatrical space. The audience members are invited to interact and ultimately commune with the actors through these rituals that center the power of survival of Black Brazilians in the face of racial violence.
