Jackson Translates Second Play from Brazilian Playwright Newton Moreno

A play translated by Elizabeth Jackson, adjunct associate professor of Portuguese, was performed at Yale Cabaret Oct. 25–27. The play, titled “Agreste (Drylands),” is a Brazilian tale of love and loss, desire and death, ignorance and violence, written by Brazilian playwright Newton Moreno.

Based on true events, “Drylands” is a poetic narrative set in Brazil’s suffocating and desertified northeast. Three storytellers share with the audience their accounts and reenactments of a moving love story between two young farm workers that unravels in perplexing ways, as their intimacy becomes the subject of local gossip, and the memories of their relationship are ransacked by a conservative, violent, and deeply fragile community.

The New Haven Review published a review of “Drylands” on Oct. 28, noting that “with its ensemble presentation, the play is simply fascinating to watch, its story seeming to be spun from the air around us.”

The “Drylands” translation was completed during a playwriting conference at Wesleyan in February 2012 titled “Contemporary Conventions, Cultural Innovations, Playful Traditions.” The series of talks, performances, and readings culminated in Wesleyan’s first conference on playwriting pedagogy and creative processes. Moreno was an invited international guest.

This is the second play by Newton Moreno that Jackson translated. In February 2017, the Yale Cabaret staged her translation of “The Meal: Dramatic Essays on Cannibalism,” which tells three stories about people consuming—and being consumed.