O Jardim Theatrical Piece

By: B. Mitidieri 

 
The Hiato Theatre Company has been doing a revival this past month, featuring their most esteemed work from the past 10 years. ‘’O Jardim’’, meaning ‘the garden’, was one of the plays they presented. The Theatre IB course recommended the class to watch it, and we did. It depicted family memories and people through objects in an environment of change. The innovative use of the stage and set contributed to the wonderful and avant-garde impression that it established. The distribution of the scenes had the potential of making the play confusing, but it was executed to perfection. The characters were strong, and the time eras were unmistakable. Any enthusiast, who cherishes new ways of doing theatre, including myself, should recycle the devices used in this play. 
As it is a custom to Hiato, the process of coming up with ‘'O Jardim’' was based on the actor’s real-life experiences. So much so, that the characters in each piece have the name of the actor who will perform it. Every member of the theatre company helps with the dialogue, but each actor contributes the most to their role. Hiato, or ‘hiatus’, means a gap or interruption (Merriam-Webster), which reflects the type of topics that the company explores: fields that are not entirely concrete or explored to much extent.  
I have not seen as many plays as I would like but ‘’O Jardim’’ had the most technique and aspects of performance that I would like to reutilize in my IB projects, compared to the other pieces I have seen. The Broadway musical that I watched was very exhausting, with extravagant and ornamental props and lights, making the performance amusing but over-the-top. On the other hand, I have also seen a Brazilian comedy that took place in a simple room but with many props and a few memorable devices. From ‘’O Jardim’’, I would like to repurpose the use of stage, repeated simultaneous lines and the use of characters like old and young Thiago. I think that the use of the thrust stage is a fabulous way to portray many scenes at a time but creating a more intimate relationship with the audience. The repetition of lines is something I will experiment with in order to emphasize the message of future projects, but simultaneous lines are harder to achieve because it could easily be very confusing. I look forward to replacing actors who play the same character because I think it gives an unconventional effect that makes the play more interesting without much effort. However, I have seen a Broadway musical and a Brazilian comedy in the past.