Fernanda Montenegro Reads Simone de Beauvoir
By Guido Alt
November 2024 – The Guinness World Records is known for trivia such as the world’s smallest drum and the heaviest whale on record. But this week something quite interesting happened for philosophy, or rather for the history of reading philosophy.
The Guinness record of the largest public reading of a philosophical text was set at a theater stage in Brazil. The play was performed by Fernanda Montenegro, a giant of Brazilian cinema. A record-setting number of around 15.000 people came to watch the reading of Beauvoir’s book “A Ceremony of Farewell” at São Paulo. The text was also prepared by Fernanda Montenegro, who read it in an adaptation and performed it for a huge audience that gathered at the Park Ibirapuera in São Paulo.
Fernanda Montenegro is a larger-than-life figure in Brazilian cinema. Now at 94 years old, her work has been acclaimed with many prizes and nominations, among which are a Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the Berlinale, an International Emmy Award for her performance in Doce de Mãe (2013), and both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her performance in Central do Brasil (1998). The performance at the play at São Paulo that got her a Guinness is based on themes that matter for Fernanda Montenegro. After all, Simone de Beauvoir’s text is a poignant memoir on her life and on aging, on the intellectual and emotional partnership with Sartre and their day-to-day struggles against illness. But more importantly for Fernanda Montenegro is that Simone de Beauvoir represents for her generation the advancement of feminism. She describes how the play came to be, and also talks about her encounter with Beauvoir’s The Second Sex in a recent interview:
“The idea remained in me through another of Simone de Beauvoir’s creations – ‘The Ceremony of Farewell’. I’ve rigorously organized this important work for two years. With the text ready, Bonarcado Produções Artísticas and Carmen Mello took this adaptation to the stages with the title ‘Viver sem tempos mortos’ (‘Living without dead times’). It counted with crucial staging by Felipe Hirsch, important art direction by Daniela Thomas and illumination by Beto Bruel. In March 2023 I’ve done the first reading of that same text put together by me at the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Two other shows followed at Teatro Poeira that were very well received by the audience. By the time that reading happened, other excerpts from the important feminist and writer were already included. By reading Simone de Beauvoir on stage, we are made conscious of the freedom that this woman imposed and proposed to all succeeding generations”
©️Guido Alt | “Fernanda Montenegro Reads Simone de Beauvoir”, IPM Monthly 3/11 (2024).
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