Light, Space and Atmosphere in a “Street-Theater”: the Unusual Teatro Oficina by Lina Bo Bardi in São Paulo

Preface

In this article we intend to examine, the Oficina Theatre of São Paulo as an ecological and illuminated space, which denotes an atmosphere of magic, a “street theatre”, narrow and long that allows the light of the city to enter through an extensive glass window pane on its side, and whose scenic space is a real “street”. For Patrice Pavis, «the scenic space is the concretely perceptible space by the audience on the stage, or on the stages, or even the fragments of a scene that is divided through a scenographic device»¹, but for Jean-Jacques Roubine it is an image space². Based on Roubine’s concept, Brazilian theorist Eduardo Tudella understands the scene as a «journey of kinetic images, making a certain understanding of mental image, verbal image, and physicalized image interact in the scene only possible in the presence of the other, the spectator, responsible for the endless character in which the scene is transmuted»³. Following these concepts, we sought to analyse the light, space, and atmosphere of the unusual theatre, considering the phenomenology and anthropology of space conceived respectively by Norbert-Schulz⁴ and Marc Augé⁵.

Inspired by the Greco-Roman philosophy to reflect on the concept of place, the architect Christian Norbert-Schulz argues that in the same way men of Classical Antiquity had specific gods to safeguard each region, there exists a deity that symbolizes the “spirit of the place”  that gives character to a place and protects the people who inhabit them. This deity is the “genius loci”. For Norbert-Schulz, a place is more than a geographic location, more than a simple space. «The place is the concrete manifestation of the human dwelling»⁶. The world as a “place” is a world in which the elements give new meaning to space, and there are five ways to understand a place, whether natural or constructed: (i) elements and cosmic order – provided by the space element, that is, the earth; (ii) character, light and time – provided by the character element, ie the sky⁷. We analyse such elements here in the light of phenomenology.

As a complement to the phenomenological analysis, we turn to Marc Augé, who differentiates the “anthropological place” and the “non-place” in contemporaneity, establishing a contrast between the social interactions that take place in non-places, which he defines as relations of solitude, and those practiced in an anthropological place, which is the sociability relationship⁸. The Oficina Theatre is an anthropological place considering the possibility of the many paths that can be taken in it, the many speeches that are given in it, and the language that characterises it, as defined by Augé⁹. For this anthropologist, «the place is necessarily historical from the moment when, combining identity and relationship, it is defined by a minimum stability»¹⁰. Furthermore, the Oficina Theatre is categorically a place with identity and stability.

Built in the 1920s, the former Teatro Novos Comediantes (New Actors Theatre) operated in a building at 520 Jaceguai Street and was rented in 1958 by a group of Law students, including José Celso Martinez Corrêa (Zé Celso) and Renato Borghi, who set up a theatre company in the building. To adapt the space to the theatrical concept of the new group, a refurbishment project was designed by architect Joaquim Guedes, who created a sandwich-type theatre, with two audiences facing each other separated by the central stage. This design lasted until the big fire that destroyed the theatre in 1966¹¹. Intellectuals and artists tried to seek resources to rebuild the theatre. In 1967, architects Flávio Império and Rodrigo Lefèvre designed an extensive concrete bleacher with side accesses on a half level and an Italian stage, where a central circle was moved by a rotating mechanism, inspired by Walter Gropius’ TotalTheater. In 1983, the theatre was listed by the Heritage Council (the CONDEPHAAT) as a cultural asset due to the significance of using the property in the transformation process in Brazilian theatre, the State Government expropriated the building, and architects Lina Bo Bardi and Marcelo Suzuki made the first proposal for a new renovation. However, this project has not progressed.

Investigating the area and population of the Bixiga district, an Afro-Italian neighbourhood of great cultural diversity and sharing the proposals of director José Celso, the architect started a new architectural project in the Oficina Theatre, with the Uzyna Uzona theatre group. In co-authorship with architect Edson Elito, Lina developed a new architecture for that same theatre. As she later idealized in the Gregório de Mattos theatre in Salvador, the scenic space contains spatial flexibility from the audience to the stage, offering multiple possibilities for contemporary staging. For Bo Bardi, the proposal «reflects the modern theatre, the total theatre that comes from the 1920s, by Artaud. A naked theatre, without a stage, practically just a place of action, a thing of community, just like a church»¹². Referring to the beginning of the construction of the Oficina Uzyna Ozona Theatre, José Celso recalls that the objective was to rebuild everything in sight in the Brechtian way. Edson Elito reports that:

When we started the project, and throughout its conception, Lina and I tried to implement Zé Celso’s scenic and spatial proposals. There was a healthy and sometimes complex process of integration of cultural and aesthetic differences. On the one hand, we architects and our modernist training, the concepts of formal cleanliness, purity of elements, less is more, constructive rationalism, asceticism, and on the other, the Zé Celso’s theatre, with symbolism, iconoclasm, baroque, anthropophagy, sense, emotion and the desire for physical contact, between actors and audience, the “te-act”.¹³. 

Bo Bardi and Elito designed the Oficina as a street, starting at Jaceguai Street, crossing the wall to the north, towards Japurá Street, but, for different reasons, this opening never happened. The theatre is an ecological and illuminated space, which denotes an atmosphere of magic. As Cristina Grazioli points out «light, in all its shades, temperatures and colours, determines the conditions of our being in the world as well as decides the quality and degree of sharing or separation among the presences in the spaces of the theatre (in all its forms and types)»¹⁴. The Oficina Theatre is a great scenic box where actors, audience, and technicians are in direct contact. Only the thick and heavy masonry in solid brick reflects the notion of Te-act or “art that embraces the spectator”, a concept formulated by Zé Celso and so well interpreted by the architect¹⁵.

This central street allows the air intake, ventilation, wind energy, into the space, in an ecological and anthropological approach, in which the theatre is the support for community life, establishing constitutive relationships among the actors, spectators, and technicians. The Oficina Theatre is a place of representation of identity. For Augé, a complex space that is simultaneously identity, relational and historical must be a place of sharing, shelter, and interaction, characteristics of the Oficina Theatre¹⁶. The confrontation between the passages from an Outer Space to an Inner Space constitutes the notion, and the operation of space manipulation is the most important for man, «since the early prehistoric times when society did not even exist»¹⁷. It is understood in this analysis that Bo Bardi and Elito considered the notion of “sensibility”, establishing a reference between the “place”, all animate beings, and their faculty of interacting with the “sensible”, as proposed by theorist Eduardo Tudella¹⁸.

Towards a phenomenology and anthropology of space

At Oficina Theatre, rebuilt and inaugurated in 1993, a unified scenic space prevailed, based on the concepts of “street” and “alleyway”. To investigate the relationship between Lina Bo Bardi’s theatre architecture and the urban context, we applied the notion of genius loci, a Greco-Roman concept that believes that each location had a genius, a guardian spirit¹⁹. Especially in Classical Antiquity, individuals recognized the importance of being in harmony with the genius of the locality where they lived²⁰. Lina Bo Bardi perfectly understood how to contextualize a functional use, making it symbolic from the concept of “spirit of the place”. We consider that the phenomenology of space is a method that requires a return to things, as opposed to abstractions and mental constructions. Ciò implica una fenomenologia dello spazio: metodo che richiede un ritorno alle cose, in contrapposizione alle astrazioni e alle costruzioni mentali²¹. 

Architect Edson Mafuz pointed out that in Lina Bo Bardi’s work the “strong idea” appears as a catalyst for interpretations and partial decisions taken regarding the fundamental aspects of any project: the program, the construction, and the place²². In this theatre and in all the adaptations and refurbishments she made to historic structures, the architect created the “spirit of the place” in the true sense of the word, that is, a place experienced, in which the genius loci materialized. Her designs have always symbolized human existence or presence and emit multiple meanings.

In addition to focusing on the site, phenomenology encompasses tectonics, because in the words of Norberg-Schulz, «detail explains the environment and manifests its peculiar quality»²³, but it also arouses intense interest in the sensory qualities of materials, light, colour, as well as the symbolic and tactile importance of the details. It is, therefore, a suitable science to investigate Bo Bardi’s creative process, as, according to researcher Olívia Oliveira, worked with «subtle substances from architecture, namely light, water, and the work of art»²⁴. The architectural project by Bo Bardi and Elito takes as its starting point the idea of “street” and “alleyway” seeking to connect the two streets of Bixiga²⁵. This choice of the project allows for the almost full-time exhibition of actors and technicians and highlights a relationship with space that refuses «the excessive privatization and passivity of bodies: the immersion in the space makes watching a spectacle more an action than contemplation»²⁶.

Light, Space, and Atmosphere

As Brecht preached, even the backstage is on display, making all the exposed elements part of the spectacle. The Oficina Theatre’s audience is always concerned to what they are watching and to actual events. The symbols of freedom imbricated in Lina’s architecture enable the group to produce performances concerning the real world therefore, assuming an instance of presentation, as Zé Celso believes the representation of reality seems to be no longer possible for Oficina Uzyna Uzona. Simultaneously, Oficina Theatre allows the spectator to integrate with the street, despite its fixed spatial structure. Using the architectural space of a church nave, that is, a place for processions, Bo Bardi provides the theatre with icons of public space, moving the spectator from the theatre to the street itself. The extensive glass wall allows this spectator to watch the spectacle always articulated with what is happening outside the theatre building. This permeability between Inner Space and Outer Space follows Hans Thies-Lehmann’s comment that «in post-dramatic theatre, space becomes a part of the world, certainly emphasized, but thought of as something that remains in the continuum of reality: a cutout delimited in time and space, but at the same time a continuation and therefore a fragment of the reality of life»²⁷.

Inside, the theatre invites the spectator to walk through the inner space during the spectacle, suggesting a reception of the spectacle that differs from the traditional way, in addition to providing different points of view. As Cristina Grazioli points out, «the question of the nature and manifestations of light arises together with the question of the possibilities of seeing, of choosing an angle of the visible, of hiding, revealing or suggesting, of evoking and unmasking. Vision and gaze cannot ignore it»²⁸. In the case of Oficina Theatre, the huge glass window lets in natural light, covering a large part of the extension of the stage-catwalk. The theatre’s magical environment even allows the use of natural light in spectacles, used even without the intervention of a scenic lighting professional, one who uses light without developing a concept. However, it is possible to use an appropriation of natural light that enters through the extensive glass panel, bringing it as a constitutive element of theatre making. It also offers the possibility of manipulating the way this natural light falls on the scene using filters and other materials²⁹.

It is worth remembering the testimony of Alessandra Rodrigues, a scenic light designer who worked with Cibele Forjaz and who, thus, revealed the use of natural light in a work in which she performed the scenic lighting for the play Cacilda!, staged at Oficina Theatre:

I started my career as a lighting designer at the Oficina Theatre, a space that features a huge window and a retractable roof, that is, a space that always dialogues with the natural light of a city like São Paulo. The night light also invaded the theatre. One of the things I liked most was to operate on Cacilda! on Sundays, as it started at 6 pm and acted in daylight. In times of Summer, it was even better. The first part of the play is biographical with scenes from the main character´s childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. A lighter space was very welcome.³⁰. 

Describing her working process, the artist reveals the importance of checking light sources other than the usual ones, emphasizing that her projects start from concrete space, architecture, and its physical aspects to stimulate the imagination. When undertaking a proposal for scenic lighting, the artist must primarily investigate the issues of form, colour, and textures of the scenic place³¹. In the latest renovation of the Oficina, its natural light and atmosphere stand out, but also the contrasts between the old exposed brick walls with arches, the presence of tubular scaffolding, the retractable roof, the stage-walkway with wooden boards, and the confrontation with the lightness of the huge glass panel.

At Oficina Theatre, one can see the unusual architecture that allows the spectator freedom of choice to move during the shows. The architect takes things out of their commonplace, generating reinterpretations based on elements present in life. This architecture absorbs everyday issues and popular uses that make it easier to decipher the meanings of space. Prioritizing the individual’s emotional needs, the architect breaks the boundaries between imagination and reason, as proposed by theatre director Zé Celso, which also encourages the active participation of the spectator in the spectacle, as well as the relationship between the mind and body. The materials and different textures cause magical effects of light and shadow when natural light comes in through the large glass pane of the north facade. Throughout the performances, scenes take place in various spaces of the theatre, on the street stage, on the metallic structures that support the three side scaffolds, on the levels located at the top of the theatre, at the ends of the street stage, on trapezoids or descending ropes from the ceiling, among other possibilities, allowing different points of view. 

This idea of letting the gaze flow to the landscape was present in numerous works by Lina Bo Bardi. Either as large glass panes, as in the Casa de Vidro do Morumbi (Glass House), or as the small “holes in the cave”, used in the SESC da Pompéia Sports Block, which she described as “prehistoric holes” opened in the wall of the “Sports Cave”. Her architectural ethics concerning the environment and ecology shines through not only in the spaces she created but also in her words when she confronts the respect for Nature in Eastern cultures and the progress at any cost that destroys the environment in Western countries,

What men have conquered overtime was progress, and civilization has survived under threat. Civilization is the ever-present Natural Reality, attention, respect for the smallest natural details – and in this sense, it is primordial – of man. What the West has been doing until today is to separate Progress from Civilization but that does not happen in the East. Japan fiercely guards its civilization deeply linked to the respectful observation of Nature alongside “progress”. […] Those who cross the Americas towards the Far East feel in the great horizons, in the calm of Nature, […] that the option of Progress in the West is not necessarily the only one. Other options could have had the same results. The option chosen by the West gave powerful results but the cost is enormous.³².

In the project with Edson Elito, Bo Bardi allowed the exterior landscape to enter the Oficina Theatre as if it were an extension of the interior space as if that theatrical space were transparent and did not want to hide anything from those who frequented it. Her proposal included the future possibility of creating a stadium theatre, similar to a Greek agora, where all individuals could express themselves in the public square.

The theatre’s renovation entailed the demolition of all the building’s internal walls, using concrete pieces to support and brace the high brick walls, in which the full arches that make up the rigging of the masonry of the old building from the 1920s remain. Metallic parts support the new roofs as well as the mezzanines superimposed at the bottom. The structure that guarantees the stability of the lateral galleries by means of detachable tubes is also metallic. Bo Bardi and Elito designed a sliding steel dome on the metallic structure that allows communication with the exterior. A strip of land covered by laminated wooden boards forms the “catwalk stage”, denoting the sense of “street” and “passage”, and, halfway between the access and the back of the land, the architects designed a “waterfall” consisting of seven visible tubes that flow into a water mirror, renewed by a recirculation mechanism. Water was an element widely used in Lina’s architecture, possibly referring to the orixás of candomblé, as the ethnographer Pierre Verger, whom the architect had met in Bahia, had stated³³.

Brazilian exuberant vegetation, the air, the light, the sounds that represent nature, the natural world that she admired so much in the work of the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, are evident in her architecture for this theatre³⁴. For semiologist Teixeira Coelho, western people understand that «that handful of gravel, the two or three stones in your garden and one or another plant are not “samples” of Nature (reductions from the natural) with which they try to somehow console themselves, but yes, they are Nature itself, giving you all the sensations you need in relation to natural space»³⁵.

According to Bo Bardi, «from the architectural point of view, the Oficina Theatre will seek the true meaning of theatre – its Physical and Tactile structure, its Non-abstraction – that profoundly differentiates it from cinema and TV, while allowing full use of these means»³⁶. She elaborated a Brechtinian and non-illusionist project, revealing to the public all the technical resources she had for the staging. We credit the location of the stage lighting, sound, electronic controls at the back of the theatre on one of the mezzanine levels to his in-depth knowledge of Artaud’s theories³⁷. At the same time, video images were captured and distributed throughout the theatre in an attempt to enable simultaneous actions in different places of the scenic space. Both Artaud and Brecht – in their very different convictions – wanted the audience to participate in the life represented on stage. The space allows the spectator freedom of choice to move during the shows. In fact, Bo Bardi takes things out of their commonplace, generating reinterpretations based on elements present in life. This architecture absorbs everyday issues and popular uses that make it easier to decipher the meanings of space. Prioritizing the individual’s emotional needs, the architect breaks the boundaries between imagination and reason, as proposed by theatre director José Celso, who also encourages the active participation of the spectator in the work, as well as the relationship between the mind and body. 

When analysing the scenic space of Oficina Theatre, it is clear that the atmosphere was conceived from an image. Roubine points out that «people are aware that what the scenic space makes us see is an image […]. One discovers that this image can be composed with the same art as a painting, that is, the dominant concern is no more fidelity to reality, but the organization of shapes, the reciprocal relationship of colours, the articulation of filled and empty areas, of shadows and lights»³⁸. Being the engineer and painter Enrico Bo´s daughter and, being herself an artist who sketched countless watercolours and drawings, Lina Bo Bardi imprinted a playful and meaningful image in the atmosphere she created for the Oficina Theatre.

The steel scaffolds that serve as side galleries denote the concept that the theatre is a work in progress, ephemeral and under construction, like the play Gracias Señor that she had staged with Zé Celso in 1972. The stage-catwalk to the entire length of the building demystifies the frontal relation of the Italian stage and the huge glass window lets in light and the city itself inside the theatre, allowing the lighting to be natural in daytime spectacles. All designed to enhance bodies in action in the spatial conception of Bo Bardi and Elito.

Transparency, Water, Glass, Nature: some considerations

Olivia de Oliveira pointed out that «in addition to spaces, Lina has a sensual and meticulous perception of the architecture and materials that “live and vibrate” in space, but also of other more subtle substances – air, light, and nature that crown the used materials»³⁹.

One can notice that the design of space at Oficina Theatre involves more than architecture, but the life that grows in it, with attention to air, light, and time, without forgetting that Bo Bardi also uses the water element as a relationship of purity and life in her works. Approximately halfway between the entrance and the back of the theatre, along the stage-walkway, the architects designed a mechanical waterfall, composed of seven tubes and a small water mirror, venerating the Orixás of the African religion, followed by countless Brazilians⁴⁰. The appropriation of everyday practices is a constant in Bo Bardi’s works and allows for different interpretations of the spaces she creates.

Oliveira states that Bo Bardi’s buildings are like time machines: they only set in motion when someone requests space. In other words, «when someone explores them, invades them, penetrates them, runs through them and, in their walk, they invent the place»⁴¹. Moreover, in the playful and unusual atmosphere conceived by the architects, scenic lighting can create great impacts and produce sensitive images.

The glass panel reveals the Minhocão viaduct, provoking in the spectator the ability to be outside the theatrical space, while remaining inside. Therefore, the Oficina Theatre is opposed to the traditional dramatic space, which is characteristically metaphorical. The architects induce the spectator to interact with urban reality and with the scene through the glass wall. The crystalline skin allows the city to penetrate the theatre, bringing it closer to the everyday space.

In this sense, the spectator cannot forget the presence of a fictional event due to an architecture that destroys the illusion of reality, although it emphasizes that the spectacle the spectator is watching integrates him with the world that is just outside. The street-like space and the side bleachers refer to the Sambadrome idealized in Rio de Janeiro by Oscar Niemeyer-, with its longitudinal passageway, bringing to light some of the canons of Brazilian culture: the parade, processions and pageants, rituals that since colonial times permeate urban life in Brazil. The permanence of the former inexpressive and gray façade is probably due to the intention of allowing the spectator to undergo a true rite of passage when crossing the street into the magical interior.

The project for the Oficina Theatre should go through the back walls, leading to a public square that connected it to the other side of the street, to the Anhangabaú Valley. The idea was to create a widely used passageway considering the predominance of walking routes in the Bixiga district, one of the oldest in the city of São Paulo. Bo Bardi seeks to integrate this small theatre with the scale, characteristics and diversity of that working-class neighbourhood. She believed, in the future, to expand the theatre to the entire block. She foresaw the demolition of the back wall, as well as that of the glazed area, because she saw in the project an unusual experience, which would be integrated into an open-air public stadium-theatre in the adjacent plot. Bo Bardi also believed in transforming the world in which human beings historically act in a non-linear way and with constant possibilities for change, always expanding the participation of the working classes.

Well-articulated with the surroundings, the theatre building inserted in an open area beside an extensive plot incorporates a century-old tree that can be seen by opening the huge glass panel on the side facade. Its unusual architecture with “street stage” and scaffolding stands is transgressive and unique, causing intense participation among actors and spectators of the plays. The gigantic glass curtain allows the city to enter the theatre and expands the inner space into the city. However, its magical and illuminated atmosphere has shown, since 1993, canonical spectacles in the history of Brazilian theatre.