to discover yourself is to destroy yourself (not to see yourself is to not exist)

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From the young and talented British playwright Stef Smith, “Swallow” is not an easy text. With a heavy theme and choppy narrative, based on the search for the existence of three figures who will become interrelated throughout their discoveries, it brings with it a series of challenges for the director's choices. The editing of the text, unprecedented in Brazil, directed by Bruno Perillo, responds well to such challenges, choosing for a few moments to move towards a lyrical, almost ethereal atmosphere, contrasting with the concrete and terrible of the dramaturgy.

Surrounded by shards of mirrors, the three characters cut themselves out through the scenic composition, either through the use of the scenery (by Marisa Bentivegna) – a platform that allows for fitting and undocking, allowing the figures to remain in a constant reorganization, their own and spatial – or the creation of body images and choreographies that contrast delicacy and tension; Marina Caron's body work explores and expands the possible bodies of actors and actresses, also in permanent discovery. In this way, the staging follows the fragmentation of the text, at the same time that it takes advantage of the game with the distances between the characters, creating relationships that, although physically impossible, convey to the audience the suggestion of the weight (or lightness) of each character. meeting.

With costumes (by Marichilene Artisevskis) in pastel tones and a light (by Aline Santini) that does not add – until it starts to snow – colors to this palette, the rawness of life is filled only by the relationships of these three people, transforming from the other. These are trajectories that collide in a chaotic and irremediable way; Stef Smith's dramaturgy takes us, through narratives that are broken like mirror fragments, to unexpected places, interspersing hints of humor and irony with the tragedies of the individual and the collective.

The shards also provide light clippings that, despite perhaps clashing with clichés, add layers of reading to the careful composition put on stage. It is a potent reminder that such stories are fragments in suspense; a game between the discovery of the cutout and the glimpse of a whole.

The discovery and search for oneself within a broad existence are the motto of the show, and the three characters bring different interpretations of what existence is. While Sam (Dani Veiga) discovers himself as transgender – and this path is initially built on individual self-affirmation – Rebecca (Tatiana Thomé) discovers herself in the violence of the relationship with others, of the impulses generated by conflict and clash. Anna (Cristina Cavalcanti) personifies a discovery of another order: that of the world, with its wars and terrors, deaths and dangers; a discovery that does not mobilize, but rather paralyzes.

Such figures bring with them different speeches, and the right choice was to allow different character constructions for each actor. Veiga, a trans actor, brings with him a very powerful and representative truth not only in his lines but in his body constructions. Cavalcanti, at times working on containment, at others heading towards the pathetic, makes people laugh but also silences the laughter. And Thomé makes interesting use of his comedy, more expansive than his colleague.

In these discoveries of the self, the other and the world, the image of the injured Pelican that invades Anna's house brings with it the dangers of life but also the need to survive, even if it is difficult to face oneself, the other, the world; even if we accumulate our mistakes and forget our successes until a drop overflows the glass. At that moment, perhaps not seeing each other means not existing. The destructive violence of discovery is real; we must swallow ourselves. Breaking mirrors is part of recognizing yourself.

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by Amilton de Azevedo , for Ruína Acesa