Os Sertões : a luta II : do des-massacre ao reinício = Os Sertões : the struggle II : from de-massacre to restart

Dedicated to 'all the power of the Un-massacre of Art and to the effects of the Trans-Human power of the Crowd,' the staging of the last part of the book deals with the fourth and last expedition by the Brazilian National Army to the Northeastern 'sertão.' 12 thousand soldiers, cannons, and modern weapons where deployed, together with modern strategists such as Marshal Bittencourt who, for the first time in the history of the Brazilian Army, established an operational base away from the front, from where he commanded the maneuvers that General Arthur Oscar and his deputy, the blood-thirsty General Barbosa, executed. The play shows the end of the War of Canudos, which resulted in the massacre of the sertanejos, the death of Antônio Conselheiro himself (who went to meet God), and the destruction of the citadel. In Teatro Oficina, the massacre is performed not as a mass for the repetition of the martyrdom, but from the perspective of an un-massacre. By exposing this closed abscess of Brazilian History in the Public Square of Theater, it wishes to lance it once and for all, to purge it from the everyday practice of Brazilian life. Canudos did not surrender, and Euclides da Cunha ends his book by reminding us that it is not one of defense, but of attack.

From 2000 to 2007, Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona worked on the staging of Euclides da Cunha's epic book, Os Sertões, which describes the 19th Century War of Canudos in the Brazilian 'sertão,' lead by Antônio Conselheiro. The final result was a pentalogy, formed by the plays A Terra (2002), O Homem I (2003), O Homem II (2003), A Luta I (2005), and A Luta II (2006), totalizing 27 hours of theater. Os Sertões reads the episodes of the war in light of past and present Brazilian history, and in relation to the struggle of the group against media mogul Sílvio Santos, who wanted to tear down the historic theater.