Practices of Freedom within and against Unfreedom: Banho de Sol and a Genealogy of Theatre in Sites of Incarceration in Brazil

Samantha Pires Vianna

doi:10.5771/9783689005726

Summary

At the crossroads of Theatre Studies, Critical Pedagogy and Abolition Studies, Samantha Pires Vianna retraces a genealogy of theatre in Brazilian sites of incarceration, from resistance to enslavement to contemporary prison theatre programmes. This historicisation opens avenues of inquiry for a close reading of
Banho de Sol (Zula Cia. de Teatro, 2019), a work of participatory theatre documenting the encounter of four theatre teachers with incarcerated women. Foregrounding structural racism, gender oppression, and colonial legacies as core concerns, the author examines body, memory and commotion strategies to demonstrate how theatre may expose carceral structures, activate bonds of solidarity and open abolitionist horizons.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2026
Copyright Year: 2026
ISBN-Print: 978-3-68900-571-9
ISBN-Online: 978-3-68900-572-6
Publisher: Tectum, Baden-Baden
Series: AGent. New Theses in Performance Research
Volume: 15
Language: English
Pages: 137
Product Type: Monograph

1. Foreword: Performance in the spiritof prison abolition No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
1. 1. Backgrounds No access
  2. Research questions No access
  3. Theoretical framework No access
  4. Methodological considerations No access
  5. Thesis layout No access
2. 1. The prison theatre programme: Art as a possibility of freedom No access
  2. The play: Banho de Sol No access
  3. Ancillary activities No access
3. 1.3 The women at “the external cells” No access
1. 1. The concert-conferences No access
2. 1. Theatre initiatives from within incarceration No access
  2. Theatre programmes entering the prison complex No access
  3. From an overlooked pastime to a threat of subversion No access
3. 1. The Paul Heritage model: expanding Forum Theatre workshops No access
  2. Short-term, top-down initiatives diluting revolutionary principles? No access
4. 1. Rio de Janeiro – Equating theatre, conscientisation and practice of hope No access
  2. Amazonas – Theatre as an expanded form of literacy No access
  3. Santa Catarina – Promoting encounters between incarcerated actors and the outside public No access
  4. Bahia – Antiracist prison theatre against incarceration No access
  5. Neoliberal “outsourcing”? No access
5. 1. A blind spot of white scholarship? No access
  2. Body, memory, conscientisation and commotion No access
1. 1. “Heads down, hands behind their backs” No access
  2. The oppressed vs. oppressor game No access
2. 1. “What else is there about you?” No access
  2. Resisting carceral representation No access
3. 1. Gestures of abolition No access
  2. “When is it that a fight becomes your own?” No access
1. Playing as the invisible thread: concluding reflections on theatre as a practice of freedom within and against unfreedom No access
Bibliography No access Pages 115 - 126