Fala, Ìbejì

Fala, Ìbejì starts from a choice that runs through the entire production: the street is not a set, it is territory. A territory of encounter, of play, of celebration, and of belonging — and, above all, a democratic place of access to art and culture. Conceived for public space, the staging is built through direct, participatory contact with the spectators, turning the street into a great terreiro of collective celebration.

The story is born from the itans of the Yoruba tradition. A peripheral community prepares to celebrate the caruru in homage to the Ìbejì, the twin orishas, when the unexpected arrival of Death threatens to interrupt the feast. It is in this tension that the performance rises: a celebration that must happen in spite of everything, affirming joy as a gesture of memory and of continuity.

Through songs, dances, games, and plenty of play, the production brings together elements of Candomblé, of Northeastern popular culture, and of the Cosme and Damião festivities, celebrating the ancestrality and the resistance of Afro-Brazilian traditions. The collective’s aesthetic research investigates the universe of popular street markets as a language: their colours, their objects, their dynamics, and their sounds are incorporated into the construction of the scene, contaminating the performers’ bodies and the very landscape of the street.

In the musical score, rhythms such as samba and pagode baiano dialogue with the sounds of the terreiros, creating a festive atmosphere that brings tradition and contemporaneity together. The music does not accompany the scene: it leads the feast, summons the audience, and sustains the poetic tone of the narrative.

The production also investigates Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) as a language of theatrical creation. Fala, Ìbejì is constituted as a fully bimodal performance, in which Libras is incorporated into the acting and the dramaturgy, expanding the possibilities of communication and of artistic expression. The piece is a work that invites children and adults to celebrate life, memory, and the continuity of ancestral knowledge.