Passion Rehearsal

Winner of the country's main literary awards, Cristovão Tezza launches a new edition of Ensaio da paixão , a novel from his youth, inspired by the years he was part of a theater community and an alternative society, led by the writer and playwright W. Rio Apa.

Before becoming the renowned novelist, columnist, and critic he is today—with an impressive list of published books and winner of several of Brazil's top literary awards, including the Jabuti Prize, the São Paulo Prize for Literature, and the National Library Literary Prize—Cristovão Tezza, from 1968 to 1976, was part of a theater community on the coast of Paraná, led by writer, playwright, and playwright W. Rio Apa (1925-2016). From this rich community experience, which cemented his fascination with the artistic and literary world, came Ensaio da paixão (Passion Essay), a novel with strong autobiographical overtones, originally published in 1986 and now receiving a new edition revised by the author.

Drawing on his personal experience, Tezza crafted a fictional and satirical narrative set during the dark years of the military dictatorship. The novel tells the story of a peculiar group—composed of inhabitants of an isolated island in southern Brazil, the Island of Passion—who come together around a single goal: to stage the Passion of the Christ . The play is produced annually on the island under the direction of Isaiah, the region's self-proclaimed prophet. Despite the clashes between its members' personalities, their social differences, and their wild political, ideological, sexual, and artistic passions, the eccentric flock prepares together to rehearse and produce the play spontaneously, without following any script to the letter. As they prepare for the grand performance, they combine work and pleasure, while enjoying the freedom the island affords. However, they are viewed by the country's repressive authorities as a subversive group and a serious threat to the prevailing order.

In this novel about his youth, Tezza uses magical realism—a hallmark of the literature of the time—combined with explicit, fast-paced humor to illustrate how alternative communities in the 1970s functioned and how they were viewed by the state. The island, the formation of a group dedicated to something greater than itself, the repression exercised by an authoritarian government: all these elements make up a delightful allegory of our country. In "Ensaio da Paixão ," the author seems to understand, almost cathartically, the impact that his time in the Rio Apa community had on his earlier life, when he was just a young revolutionary and radical transgressor of the "system," and on his present life, as a renowned writer and literary figure.

In a previously unpublished afterword, written especially for this edition, the author assesses the cultural differences between the present and his youth, illuminating certain aspects of the book. But differences aside, Cristovão Tezza remains the same rebel as ever: "[Literature] is a personal experience intended not to teach what the author knows, but for him to discover, through writing, what he doesn't yet know, and eventually share it with the reader. It is a risky activity, an act of existence, and a free territory; it must be a free territory to make sense."