The Guts of Criticism

Abstract

Structured in three sections, this essay presents, at the opening of each section, one short critical essay written in the heat of the hour for a traditional newspaper. The analyzed pieces are: “A Boba”, by Wagner Schwartz; “Fúria”, by Lia Rodrigues Cia. De Danças; and “Pi: Insane Panorama”, directed by Bia Lessa. After the full transcription of each of these texts, the essay proposes a critique of these three critical texts by providing contextual information about the trajectories of the three aforementioned artists, but above all trying to reconstruct, based on a “free association” exercise, the body memories which can somehow be related to my immediate visceral reception of the three works. Among these memories, two other short critical essays published in the same newspaper also deserved to be fully transcribed: essays inspired by the plays “Domínio Público”, by Wagner Schwartz, Renata Carvalho, Maikon K, and Elizabeth Figer; and “Is this a Black?”, by Tarina Quelho and Mirella Façanha, one of the most important experiments in “theatre as essay” in recent years. The goal is to think how the critique of performing arts can be both a visceral, artistic, and philosophical response to different aesthetic propositions.