The first fruits

From award-winning author Dias Gomes, "As Primícias" is a metaphor for power relations. It tells the story of a young couple's revolt against the landowner's sexual privilege. It's a play with broad and universal significance.

Always attentive to Brazilian reality, Dias Gomes drew on elements from this landscape to inspire his plays. His theatrical work reflects a relentless commitment to political and social values, a concern for local and universal realities, and the creation of moral and ethical characters who champion human values.

But it was in a European custom from the Middle Ages that Dias Gomes found inspiration for *The First Fruits *. Written in 1977, the story takes place on a large rural estate, in an undetermined time, where a young peasant couple can think of only one thing: their wedding night. But instead of looking forward to the great happiness they will experience, they are concerned about who will be there at the final moment. For the much-feared jus primae noctis , the landowner's right to the virginity of peasant brides, belongs to the all-powerful master and lord. The husband only has the right to have sex with his wife on the second night.

Contrary to tradition, Lua and Mara decide not to accept the humiliation and rebel against custom. They hatch a plan to deceive the owner, with the vicar as their accomplice. The couple will face all the threats and judgments imposed on them, but the first fruits of Mara's youthful sensuality will be Lua's. A cry for freedom illuminated by the power of love, on a night of rebellion and liberation.

A poetic satire on the absolute power that was beginning to crumble at the time of its production, As primícias ( The First Fruits) has sex and power as the foundations of this allegory about man's right to freedom. Or, as Dias Gomes called it, a political-sexual allegory in seven scenes.

“Subtle and humorous, it portrays a reality that prevailed in the Middle Ages and that, in some countries like France, lasted until the Revolution of 1789. The show arrived in Rio de Janeiro in October 1993, at the João Caetano Theater, and I had the honor of designing the set design and costumes... Dias Gomes said that the play had been designed for a very peculiar circumstance: the regime of force that dominated Brazil at the time.” José Dias