Theater Behind Bars: Judith Malina's Diaries Shed Light on Artistic Resistance Under Brazil's Dictatorship

Judith Malina (1926-2015), co-founder of the Living Theatre and a major figure of American experimental theater, left behind a considerable body of writing. Her intimate diaries, kept between 1969 and 1971, have just been published in the United States under the title The Diaries of Judith Malina (1969-1971). The book highlights the particular interest that the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985) took in the resistance strength of the performing arts, which it considered a threat to its authority.

The diary covers a crucial period in Brazilian history, marked by the regime's most severe repression, especially after the introduction of Institutional Act No. 5 in 1968. Malina, who stayed in Brazil with her troupe, documents the arrests, censorship, and intimidation suffered by local artists, while also bearing witness to their creativity and courage in the face of oppression. These writings offer an intimate glimpse into the mechanisms of censorship and how artists circumvented the bans to continue creating and disseminating their works.

Malina's diaries follow in the footsteps of her militant work with the Living Theatre, a collective founded in 1947 with Julian Beck, which advocated anarchist and pacifist theater. Her writings constitute a precious testimony on the links between art and politics, and on the role of artists in social struggles. The publication of these notebooks comes at a time when research on the South American 'years of lead' is experiencing renewed interest, both in academia and among the general public.

This book should appeal to theater historians, scholars of Latin American dictatorships, and anyone pondering the ability of the arts to resist censorship. It offers a unique perspective, that of an engaged foreign artist who managed to transform her experience of repression into a universal reflection on freedom of expression. The publication of these diaries is an editorial event that reminds us that art is often one of the first targets of authoritarian regimes, but also one of the last bastions of resistance.

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Written by the ADM desk based on arte!brasileiros. Read the original article for the full story.