From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
A Cicatriz Se Abre (Brazilian Teatro Experimental)
This article is about the São Paulo production (2022). For other somatic and physicality-centred works, see Flight imagery across adaptations.
A radically stripped-down theatre piece that abandons speech entirely. A Cicatriz Se Abre stages 70 unbroken minutes of bodily damage and refusal.
There is no plot. Instead: a performer writhes to the rhythm of amplified heartbeat; another stands motionless while a third winds red fabric around their limbs until their hands shake; a body is lifted into a wheelchair, then lifted out, then placed again, ad nauseam. The stage scatters medical detritus (gauze, tape, syringes) which performers incorporate as props, or props become obstacles. Sound design consists entirely of: asynchronous female breathing; a mechanical heartbeat that speeds and slows; the sound of the earth rubbing against space (a cosmic drone); and in the final minutes, the high-pitched scrape of the human spine resonance.
The final image: all five performers motionless in partial undress and bodily tension, facing away. Lights fade. Then brighten. Performers begin to move. (silence; only breathing and heartbeat): “” The cycle resets. The audience is not told whether to applaud or wait.
The work refuses the glitch's resolution: the body cannot be fixed, only renewed in repetition.