Das águas ao céu: um estudo do personagem Joaquim na tessitura e na iconografia de Vereda da Salvação, de Jorge Andrade

Abstract

This study undertakes an investigation into the representation of the character Joaquim in Jorge Andrade’s dramaturgical work Vereda da Salvação, through an articulation of textual and iconographic analysis. The inquiry begins with a biographical contextualization of the playwright and an examination of the social and political transformations in Brazil during the 1950s and 1960s, which informed the real events that inspired the rural plot of the play. Particular attention is devoted to Andrade’s stage directions, which function as a crucial component of his dramaturgy, detailing settings, costumes, and gestures, while simultaneously constructing Joaquim as a figure marked by hallucination. Yet, within the dialogical fabric of the text, Joaquim emerges with greater complexity, embodying practices that suggest spirituality as a pathway to confronting social injustice. The analysis further encompasses a comparative study of the official photographs from the two productions of the play directed by Antunes Filho in 1964 and 1993, preserved in the memorial archive of Sesc São Paulo. These images underscore, both in the initial staging and in the revival following Andrade’s death, the religious atmosphere and collective ecstasy that permeate the work, thereby illuminating how the actors’ performances render visible and intensify the dramatic dimensions of faith. Through this juxtaposition of text and image, memory and performance, the study contends that Joaquim in Vereda da Salvação, by surrendering to the supernatural and religious ecstasy, transcends his social condition as a sharecropper and is projected as a symbol of the pursuit of social justice and spiritual liberation.