The playwright and director Zé Celso, one of the greatest exponents of Brazilian theater, died at the age of 86 after suffering burns due to a fire in his apartment in Sao Paulo, his company reported Thursday.
“Our phoenix has just departed,” the Teatro Oficina group posted on Instagram, along with a smiling, bare-chested photo of José Celso Martinez Corrêa, popularly known as Zé Celso.
The artist had been hospitalized on Tuesday after a fire in his apartment in Sao Paulo. According to the local press, the fire would have started as a result of a short circuit in a heater and the playwright suffered burns on 60% of his body.
With his Teatro Oficina group, founded in 1958, Zé Celso defied the censorship of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and became an exponent of Tropicalism in the performing arts, with irreverent works such as ‘O Rei da Vela’ (by Oswald de Andrade) or ‘Roda Viva’ (written by Chico Buarque). Zé Celso “substituted good taste for the truth”, defined the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo in his obituary.
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The G1 portal, of the Globo group, called it “the revolution of the Brazilian theater”.
“Brazil says goodbye today to one of the greatest names in the history of Brazilian theater, one of its most creative artists,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tweeted after his death. “Brave, he always defended democracy and creativity, many times facing censorship,” added the president.
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“I have the insurrection in my body,” Zé Celso said in an interview with AFP in 2019, when presenting a modern version of ‘Roda Viva’ in Rio de Janeiro, loaded with satire, interactions with the public and criticism of the then president. far-right Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).
“I have been tortured during the military dictatorship, but what is coming now is much worse. I have never seen so much ignorance and so much hatred,” he said four years ago about the political moment.
Zé Celso had been in a relationship for decades with fellow director Marcelo Drummond, 60, whom he married last month.
AFP
2023-07-07 15:29:07
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