The Piranha Lounge

The Piranha Lounge was based on the stories of Murilo Rubião, the first Brazilian writer of the genre magical realism. The play transformed a small studio theatre into a seedy after-hours club where audience members, sitting at dimly lit tables, meet the strange characters of Rubião's stories. Be prepared to encounter horny Kangaroos, ex-magicians, sadists, the living dead and many others in this late-night shebeen. Their stories are told using an enormous range of theatre techniques. Be prepared to be surprised by the minute, laugh and be touched by the melancholia of the Lounge. Based on the stories of Murilo Rubiao, the first Brazilian Magical Realist writer, the Piranha Lounge is a place where dreams are waiting to come true.

Premiered at the Oval House Theatre in December 2002, the show returned for another sell-out run at the Oval in 2003 receiving a Time Out Critic’s Choice review, it was then presented at The Bull in Barnett (now Arts Depot) before transferring to the the Lyric Hammersmith for another three-week run in March 2004.

Insanely Magical

- Time Out Critic’s Choice

Murilo Rubião

Rubião, the first Brazilian writer of the style commonly known as Magical Realism, wrote and re-wrote the same short stories during all his life (1916-1991). They deal with the real and the unreal – animals, dragons, human beings alive and dead appear and disappear, talk, touch and exist in an almost casual yet fantastic realism. Kafkaesque, one might say of these stories, but they belong to another tradition of fantastic literature – a South American one. The element that most clearly separates him from his counterpart from Prague is a gently pervasive, unmasked sensuality. Murilo Rubião has one book translated in English – The Ex-Magician and Other Stories, published by Harper & Row.

The Process

During three months the company was immersed in the work of Rubião. Several of his stories were read and adapted. Six remain in the final version of the show: The Moon, The Three Names of Godofredo, The Dragons, The Trap, Teleco – The Rabbit & Barbara. Characters and names are based in Rubião’s characters even if their stories are not told in the show.