Brazil’s Famous Hotbed Of Countercultural Theatre Now Under Threat By Real Estate Development

Teatro Oficina, part of the tropicalismo movement of the 1960s and ’70s and notorious for performances filled with nudity and onstage drug consumption, is headquartered in a unique, landmarked São Paulo building by architect Lina Bo Bardi with a huge window and retractable ceiling. Mogul and TV personality Silvio Santos owns the land around Teatro Oficina and wants to build three skyscrapers which would block the theatre’s light, and the country’s artistic community is rallying to fight Santos’s plan.