Synopsis:
“Cabaré Chinelo” talks about the existence of a cabaret in Manaus, during the belle époque period, in the facilities of the sumptuous Hotel Cassina. The place served as the basis for the development of the city because it brought together the politicians and powerful people of the time. As the main product that was extracted at that time was latex, the main element of rubber, this gave the name to the “Chinelo” and consequently to Cabaret.

Cabaré Chinelo is the new show from Ateliê 23, in partnership with the Argentine theater company García Sathicq, which tells the other side of the story of the prostitutes who lived in the belle époque in the city of Manaus. How did they get here? How were their lives? These women were willing prostitutes? Who were they? What do they have so much to tell?

Project:
When Ateliê 23 met, in 2020, the researcher Narciso Freitas, he had access to the truths behind this story. The women known as prostitutes who came to Manaus from other parts of the world were, in fact, sexually trafficked, since many of them did not know that they were coming to the city to play that role, without their consent. This revealed the need to denounce this reality, as well as to bring these voices to the stage, metaphorically, to share how women were considered since the golden age of rubber in Manaus and how this has repercussions to the present day on machismo and misogyny, rooted in the actual society.

This is the first international association of Ateliê 23. The work was built together with Cia García Sathicq, in Argentina. And through Iberescena, it was possible to carry out an exchange, in July 2022, with the director Jazmín Sathicq, where the artists of At23 were able to learn about the processes of the co-director, talk about the staging and even delve into the historical investigation of Narciso, knowing the port, which was the distribution center of these women, in Buenos Aires, and the tombs of others.