Quadrovivo

Tom na Fazenda / Tom at Farm

Text by Michel Marc Bouchard | Directed by Rodrigo Portella | With Armando Babaioff, Soraya Ravenle, Gustavo Rodrigues and Camila Nhary

In Brazilian Portuguese with French and English surtitles.

Critics’ Award for Best Play | Quebec Association of Theater Critics – AQCT (Montreal – 2019)
Best Play | São Paulo Art Critics Association – APCA (SP – 2019)
Best Director Award | Association of Theater Producers of Rio de Janeiro – APTR (RJ – 2018)
Best Director Award | Shell Prize (Rio de Janeiro – 2018)

After the death of his lover, a devastated Tom travels to the depths of the countryside for his funeral. There he meets the mother, who is unaware of her deceased son’s sexual orientation, and the brother, a virile and violent peasant who insists that Tom hide their relationship from his grieving mother. He quickly gains the upper hand over Tom, and, by dint of physical and psychological threats, drags him into his lie for the good of his mother and the honor of his family.

On this farm, lying is the first condition of survival. Blood and mud soil the words and magnify bodies transfigured by emotions to reveal the universal tragic grandeur of this necessary text.

In 2022, we celebrate five years since the first performance of Tom na Fazenda in Rio de Janeiro, with more than 200 performances, 25 prizes (various categories) and 28,000 spectators. Award-winning Brazilian director Rodrigo Portella adapts Michel Marc Bouchard’s text here. In Brazil, where the number of homophobic murders reached a record number, Tom à la Ferme acquired a terrible resonance.

And tomorrow, forget the cologne. When men use cologne, it's for weddings. Tomorrow, it's a funeral. Do I need to repeat that?

Company presentation

Quadrovivo is the name that actor/producer Armando Babaioff chose for his "company" born from this trip to Avignon. Producing his own works since 2009, in 2017 Babaioff launched his most important project, Tom na Fazenda. In 2022, faced with the countless uncertainties and persecutions of the Brazilian artistic world, he decided to run this Brazilian theatrical production with the desire to denounce the Brazilian reality through art. Believing in the artistic quality of the project combined with the urgency of the discourse, Tom na Fazenda arrives for the first time in Europe.

Michel Marc Bouchard - Author

One of the most important voices in Quebec dramaturgy, author of more than twenty plays, Michel Marc Bouchard enjoys significant international influence thanks to his masterfully constructed plays, which most often explore the homosexual condition through fiction. passionate where mythology and history are solicited. Among his main texts are Les feluettes (1987), Les muses orphelines (1988), Le chemin des passes dangerous (1998), Christine, la reine-garçon (2012) and La Divine Illusion (2015). Created in 2011, Tom à la ferme was adapted for the cinema by Xavier Dolan in 2013; Already translated into nine languages, the play has so far seen 15 productions here and abroad.

Rodrigo Portella - Director

Performing artist born in the interior of Brazil, theater director, lighting designer and playwright with 45 years and 30 years of career, he won the most important Brazilian theater prizes of the last decade with the plays Les enfants, by Lucy Kirkwood in 2020 and Tom à la ferme, by Michel Marc Bouchard in 2018. The latter won the Critics' Prize for best show ( Montreal – 2018/2019) and the awards for Best Theater Show of 2019 by the Association of Art Critics of São Paulo APCA (São Paulo - 2019) and by the Association of Theater Producers of Rio de Janeiro APTR ( Rio de Janeiro - 2018).
Rodrigo holds a diploma and a master's degree in performing arts from the University of Rio de Janeiro, with a doctorate in progress. His theatrical and audiovisual works have occupied the main cultural spaces of cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. They have entered the programming of the biggest theater festivals in more than 90 cities in Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Germany and Canada. He currently lives in Barcelona, he is a professor at the higher course of the Instituto Cal de Arte e Cultura in Rio de Janeiro. During his career he has often directed the actor Armando Babaioff, who initiated this production, translated the text and plays the role of Tom.

Armando Babaioff - Actor, Producer & Translator

Graduated in Performing Arts at the Martins Penna National Theater School and then at the University of Rio de Janeiro (UniRio) in Brazil, Armando Babaioff has worked for 25 years as an actor, producer (since 2009) and translator (since 2015). In 2022 he created the "Quadrovivo" with the challenge of internationalizing theatrical productions.
In theater, he played in the shows "The Graduate" by Mike Nichols, Mademoiselle Julie, by August Strindberg, "In the solitude of the cotton fields", by Bernard-Marie Koltès - where he was nominated best actor for the Prize APTR and also in "Gota d'Àgua", by the Brazilian novelist Chico Buarque.
After some works on television and cinema, at the beginning of 2015, he acquired the rights of Tom na Fazenda|Tom à la ferme, by Quebec playwright and screenwriter Michel Marc Bouchard. Babaioff translated the text* and continues to produce and interpret the main character of the play.
Tom na Fazenda has been on tour since 2017 and received the highest theatrical honors in Brazil (APCA, Shell, APTR, Cesgranrio) and in Canada the Critics' Award for Best Show (Festival TransAmériques Quebéc/Montreal – FTA 2018)
As the interpreter of the character Tom, Babaioff has, several times, been nominated and awarded best actor. During his career he was often directed by director Rodrigo Portella, responsible for the artistic direction of the Brazilian version of Tom na Fazenda.

Cast

With Armando Babaioff (Tom), Soraya Ravenle (Ágatha), Gustavo Rodrigues (Francis), Camila Nhary (Sara)
Scenography Aurora dos Campos
Lighting Tomás Ribas
Costume Bruno Perlatto
Music Marcello H.
Choreography Toni Rodrigues
Technical director José Baltazar and Fernanda Gonzaga Tomás
Graphic design and communication Victor Novaes
Press (France) Nathalie Gasser + Jean Philippe Rigaud
Press (Brazil) Fernanda Lacombe

Production

Diffusion Séverine André-Liebaut
Production manager Alan Castelo
Production management Sérgio Saboya + Silvio Batistela | Galharufa Products
Idealization Quadrovivo

Tom na Fazenda was published in Brazil, in Portuguese, by Editora Cobogó in 2018.

In the press

“…tragic, sublime, could be iconic. A standing ovation greeted each of the transgressive performances, with a raw and wild aesthetic, close to the quest for The Flowers of Evil, with actors pushing their limits. »

La Terrasse

“The actors show an intense physical commitment. Rodrigo Portella's staging is at the same time simple, powerful, cohesive, carnal."

Le Devoir

“The sobriety of Rodrigo Portella makes all the intelligence of his staging. The bare stage leave the actors only wih their bodies and the stage as instruments, the text echoes with a powerful impact."

IO/Gazette