The Forja Theater Group and Plínio Marcos: Two lost souls on a dirty night

Abstract

Social theater and engaged theater are two designations among others that became noticeable during a vivid debate from the late nineteenth century but consolidated only in the last century. Its point of convergence was the contexture of the relationship between drama and politics and between this latter and propaganda. To the English critic Eric Bentley, political theater refers both to the play and to when, where and how it is represented. This article focuses on the engagement matter, by following the historical course of the theatrical group Forja and the dramatist Plínio Marcos. Themes such as violence, poverty, solitude, bad social inclusion, individualism, and collectivity in the capitalist society will be examined, particularly in the play Dois perdidos numa noite suja (“two lost in a dirty night”), from 1966 and staged by the group Forja in 1984.