Macacos

At acting school, he had already been told that major roles were unattainable for him. Romeo, Hamlet or Uncle Vanya played by a Black actor? Unfortunately, that would be impossible to explain to the audience! So Clayton concluded: I have to write my own play. The result is a theatrical ghost-train ride through historical and contemporary racism in Brazil – from European colonialism and the legacy of slavery to everyday discrimination and the systematic killing of Black people in the favelas by the military police. Alone on an empty stage, Clayton uses only his body and his voice to depict an entire panorama of society.

The former student has become a celebrated actor: his play has already toured 11 countries but is still evolving. »Brazil won’t let me finish the play; it has a life of its own,« says Nascimento. Following a performance, a mother whose ten-year-old son had been shot dead by police in a favela approached him for help. He incorporated her story into the play and this marked the first time in Brazilian history that a criminal case was brought to court through the theatre. At FIND, »Macacos« is now being performed for the first time in the Germanspeaking world.


CLAYTON NASCIMENTO, born in S.o Paulo in 1988, is an actor, director and author. As an actor, he appeared in »Buraquinhos ou o vento é inimigo do Picum.« (»Little Holes or the Wind is the Enemy of Picum.«) directed by Naruna Costa, who won the APCA Award (Associa..o Paulista de Críticos de Arte) for best director in 2019 – the first black woman to receive this award in the institution’s 70-year history. His play »Macacos« has won several awards, including the Shell Theatre Award (S.o Paulo) and the APCA Award.


90 minutes