Núcleo Bartolomeu de Depoimentos' Orfeu Mestiço, Uma Hip-Hópera Brasileira

The 8th Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute sought to examine the broad intersections between urban space, performance and political/artistic action in the Americas. From the critical poetics of body art to the occupation of public space by social movements, the event invited participants to explore the borders, identities and practices through which subjectivities, hegemonies and counter-hegemonies are constructed in the spaces of the city and beyond. Mestizo Orpheus tells of the return of a politician to his past and his connection to military dictatorship. A phone call about the disinterment of the body of his companion Eurydice places Orpheus in contact with a past that he has tried to forget. Responding to conflict, this text is inspired by the Orphic myths and incoporates multilple characters from different epochs, who each help guide Orpheus in his descent into hell.

Núcleo Bartolomeu de Depoimentos works with language at the union of hip hop and epic theatre to create hip-hop theatre, a pioneering concept in Brazil that opens numerous possibilities and fields of action, dialoguing with the trends and diversity of urban culture.