Nelson Rodrigues is considered to be the most important Brazilian playwright of all times. His plays, written between the 1940’s and 1970’s, innovated and stirred a revolution in Brazilian theatre. More than an artist, Rodrigues became an icon of Brazilian culture, as he explored the conflict between deep human instincts and moral determinations that often results in unatoned guilt, a typical trait of the South American Catholic bourgeoisie.

Nevertheless, Nelson Rodrigues is still very little known in the UK. The stage reading of one of his most emblematic plays, 'Perdoa-me Por Me Traíres' ('Forgive Me For You Betraying Me'), translated into English, is an attempt to bring Rodrígues' work closer to the British audience.  
 
Directed by Ramiro Silveira, a group of international actors (including the playwright's grandson Nelson Sacha Rodrigues) gave life to the Rodriguean characters. Collaborating to the cabaret atmosphere, the musical director Stephen Douse, together with his band, performed the live soundtrack, a combination of Brazilian and world music in a fusion of rhythms.

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Nelson Rodrigues Festival

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This dramatic reading was the starting point of a bigger project: Nelson Rodrigues Festival in UK that will happen in 2018. 

This Project, supported by Oberon Books, Turbilhão de Idéias Production, the Embassy of Brazil in London and the University of Essex, amongst others, consists of performing key works by Nelson Rodrigues as part of a strategy of making his plays more widely known to the British audience. These performances will coincide with the planned publication of new translations of his most acclaimed plays by Oberon Books. In total, seven of Nelson’s most significant plays will be performed; three of them with full productions in British theatres and four as stage readings. The festival will also include public lectures, debates and screenings of film adaptations of Rodrigues’ works.

For the first time the most significant Brazilian Theatre companies based in the UK will be joining forces and working together in the same project, along other Brazilian and international partners.