Meet Brazilian Theater Legend: Cacilda Becker

Ladies and gentlemen, senhoras e senhores!

Let me introduce you to one of Brazil’s most important stage artists… Cacilda Becker!

Born in 1921 in the city of Pirassununga in the state of São Paulo, raised by her mother along with 2 sisters and with very little money, Cacilda became one of the biggest names in the history of Brazil and Brazilian theater. She left us early, at age 48, while on stage: At the end of the first act of the play Waiting for Godot, Cacilda had a stroke. She had been working as an actress for 30 years. 

Critics and audience described Cacilda Becker as a sort of sacred being. The fact that she died quite young and during a performance certainly intensified her status of legend. The name Cacilda Becker echoes far beyond the boundaries of the artistic circles of Brazil, and reading about her life made me wish the impossible: to see her on stage.

Cacilda starred in two movies (Luz dos Meus Olhos in 1947 and Floradas na Serra in 1954) and one soap opera (Ciúmes, by the extinct TV channel Tupi), none of which can be easily obtained. Very few videos can be found, one of which is a cooking oil commercial made in 1962 in which she explains to her real-life husband, the actor Walmor Chagas, why Óleo Saúde is the best.

But according to all witnesses the stage is where she really worked her magic. Cacilda didn’t have an extraordinay physique and many say that she made a name despite her voice, which was not at all strong as one would expect from a stage star. Actress Madalena Nicol, who shared the stage with her — and with whom Cacilda came to develop a certain rivarly — once described her voice as a taquara rachada (a very common term to describe a craking voice tone. It refers literally to the sound of a cracked bamboo flute). Yet, Cacilda’s name became a synonym of the word theater. While some people are said to have the right body or the right voice for this or that sort of artistic craft, her talent was somewhere beyond that.

I must say I felt a little overwhelmed by the wide range of interesting aspects of her life: her defense of actor’s rights during the dictatorship in the 60’s, her years as a radio actor, her upbringing surrounded by joy and friendship despite all poverty, her dream as a teen to become the Isadora Duncan of Brazil, her years in the TBC, one of Brazil’s biggest theater companies of all times, her love affairs, her son… nossa senhora! It’s quite a bit.

But the question of what turned her into the legend she is today – what happened when she stepped on stage and why was she so wonderful? —  really triggered my curiosity.

According to critics, co-workers, audience, family, and friends, Cacilda had an overwhelming courage and a determination to convince that drove her on stage and made her more powerful than anyone and anything.

Cacilda Becker as Pega Fogo (Source)

The picture above shows the actress in one of her most memorable roles as a poor, misbehaved boy named Pega Fogo (Catch on Fire, in a reference to the character’s red hair), in the play with the same name written by Jules Renard. Lending her adult female body to such an opposite character, she broke the barrier that sets apart woman and boy, bringing crowds to tears. Swiss actor Michel Simon, after crying his eyes out at a performance of Pega Fogo in Paris, compared Cacilda Becker to Charlie Chaplin: “From now on, Pega Fogo can have no other face but yours”. 

Oh boy… or in good Brazilian, ai ai… 

What a wonderful, strong woman Cacilda Becker must have been! The power of her performances will always be a mystery to us who were not there, and after all, isn’t mystery the main matter of all myths?

In the mean time, let us savor a poem that our Carlos Drummond de Andrade  wrote when Cacilda passed away:

A morte emendou a gramática. Morreram Cacilda Becker. Não era uma só. Era tantas. Professorinha pobre de Pirassununga Cleópatra e Antígona  Mary Stuart Mary Tyrone Marta de Albee  Margarida Gauthier e Alma Winemiller Hannah Jelkes a solteirona  A velha senhora Clara Zahanassian Adorável Júlia  Outras muitas, modernas e futuras, irreveladas. Era também um garoto descarinhado e astuto: Pinga-Fogo E um mendigo esperando infinitamente Godot. Era principalmente a voz de martelo sensível martelando e doendo e descascando a casca podre da vida para mostrar o miolo de sombra  a verdade de cada um dos mitos cênicos.  Era uma pessoa e era um teatro. Morrem mil Cacildas em Cacilda.

Death mended grammar  Cacilda Becker are dead. She wasn’t onlyone. She was so many.  A poor school teacher in Pirassununga  Cleopatra and Antigone Mary Stuart Mary Tyrone Albee’s Martha Margarida Gauthier and Alma Winemiller Hannah Jelkes the single lady The old lady Clara Zahanassian Adorable Julia Many others, modern, never revealed.  She was also a needy and cunning boy: Pinga-Fogo And a beggar eternally waiting for Godot. She was more than anything the sensitive hammer’s voice hammering and hurting and peeling the rotten skin of life  to show the shadowy core the truth of each scenic myth. She was a person and a theater. One thousand Cacildas die in Cacilda.

(Free translation by Larissa Garcia)

Momento Aula Viva

Here is something for you to have fun with: Try to memorize the lines below: 

A morte emendou a gramática.
Morreram Cacilda Becker.
Não era uma só. Era tantas.
Era uma pessoa e era um teatro.
Morrem mil Cacildas em Cacilda.

In front of the mirror, say these lines making sure you are really articulating the vowel “a” and the two diferent sounds of the “r” (remeber that “rr” sounds like the “h” in English). If you focus on those two things you will have enough to pay attention to. 

When the words are coming out naturally, try them with different intentions: deliver them with an intonation of anger; turn them all into questions; make it sound like they are the most absurd thing you’ve ever heard.

Let me know how it goes. I would love to hear form you!

Abraço grande e até mês que vem!

* Top picture: Cacilda Becker as Antigone. (Source)

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