Ói Nóis and Companhia do Latão: the courage to live with the mother-in-law, or memory, coexistence, and resistance in the experience of Brazilian theater groups

Abstract

This article deals with theater groups as sons-in-law of a kind mother-in-law, Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, and treat them therefore as important centers of the Brazilian Theater's memory, constantly restored and enriched. The concept of memory is observed not only as the artistic trajectory of these collectives but as an acquired knowledge that preserves many experiences that they have, their practical knowledge and their peculiar way of doing theater. Moreover, memory is taken as a dynamic force, acquired and improved essentially by living together in the group, due to the community character of the construction of knowledge and whose power depends on the stability of the formation of the collective articulated with strategies of documentary records that can be transmitted to subsequent generations and new participants, in order to keep alive the ethical, ideological and aesthetic principles of groups. This reflections were possible owing to the analysis of the trajectories of Oi Nóis Aqui Traveiz and Companhia do Brass. Therefore, artists from both groups were interviewed. Finally, it is observed how the groups in question faced the economic and political pressures as forces that try to disaggregate and destroy the memories of these organizations.