O livro (The book)

The original text by Newton Moreno, award-winning author of As Centenárias, Maria do Caritó, Agreste, and A Memória da Cana, tells the story of a man who receives a book from his father, but this gift is the announcement that he will soon become blind—perhaps in a few hours, a few minutes… now.

The play O Livro (The Book) is the second result of the collaboration between actor Eduardo Moscovis and director Christiane Jatahy, following the acclaimed Corte Seco (2009). The following year, in 2010, they worked together for the first time on this text. The encounter between the actor and the director, through a first year of performances and rehearsals, strengthened and deepened their artistic connection for the creation of this piece/monologue.
In Christiane Jatahy’s staging, the man and the actor move side by side along a transformative journey from light to darkness and from darkness to light. “It is a piece about light and darkness, about seeing and not seeing, reading and blinding oneself, blinding oneself to see. Our ‘book-performance’ is also the story of two journeys that meet: that of the actor who receives the text of O Livro and confronts it, and that of the man who receives O Livro from his father and confronts it,” explains the director. “While the man becomes blind, the actor creates,” she adds.
The set, also designed by Christiane Jatahy, is a massive roll of paper that unrolls and covers the entire stage, transforming it into a printed book.

O Livro (The Book)

By Christiane Jatahy
Monologue with Eduardo Moscovis
Text Newton Moreno
Direction and Set Design Christiane Jatahy
Lighting Paulo Cesar Medeiros
Soundtrack Rodrigo Marçal
Executive Production Tatiana Garcias
Production Eduardo Moscovis – Grega Produções

O Livro premiered in October 2010 at Espaço Sesc in Copacabana, was presented in March 2011 at the Curitiba Festival, in May 2011 at the SESC Festival in Porto Alegre, and then returned to Rio at the invitation of Teatro Sergio Porto and the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro in July 2011.