Introduction to Snapshot: Brazil

Extract

This short dossier on contemporary Brazilian theatre offers the reader a snapshot of how artists have responded to the ongoing political crisis. The massive protests that erupted across the nation in June 2013 paved the way for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, and left the economy in a shambles. Though flawed, the leftist political projects of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003–10) and of Rousseff, his successor in the presidency (2011–16), privileged social inclusion. A great part of the Brazilian middle and upper classes resented the resulting socio-economic ascension of historically underserved populations. Much like the reactions sparked by the spike in popularity of conservative leaders in Europe and the United States, the Brazilian opposition's political manoeuvre to oust Rousseff in 2016 has divided the nation. A solid majority of the artistic class has sided with compatriots who call the impeachment a coup, albeit not a military one.