What should a dramatic work, call it a play or film ,be about: a highly dramatic occurrence or the supposed humdrum of every day life?

To American writer John (”Rabbit,Run”) Updike and German filmmaker Wim(”Perfect Days”) Wenders,among others , fiction is about confronting the humdrum reality of every day life.

In Updike´s case the themes are the limitations of American suburbia and in Wender´s award-winning film , a toilet cleaner of public toilets in Tokyo–who despite his insalubrious daily life– knows how to enjoy life via music and literature.

The same focus on the meaning of everyday, humdrum life can also apply to “Senhor Diretor”(“Dear Mister Director”) by Brazil´s late Lygia Telles Fagundes.(Sao Paulo ,1918–Sao Paulo,2022).

The monologue staged and continuing ( until 23 April) at Rio de Janeiro´s 171-seater theater-in -round Teatro Poeira(Botafogo) features the talents of yet another veteran Brazilian actress Analu Prestes,72.

I say”yet another” after witnessing other outstanding “young” Brazilian thespians Fernanda Montegro,95, in the fantastic film “Victory” and Othon Bastos, ,91, in a monologue based on his life “I Don´t Give Up, “

The Brazilian theatre world seems to prolong to life of many of its star thespians!

For fifty minutes,Ms. Prestes portrays an old-maid schoolteacher ,62,retired from daily work but still lucid and not retired from observing the world around her. Written in 1977 by the Sao Paulo author who won the Premio Camoes–or the Noble Prize of the Portuguese-speaking world–the play is a kind of one day in the life of episode as Irish author James Joyce achieved in “Ulysses.”

On her way to meet old friends to celebrate her 62nd birthday, Maria Emilia becomes indignant and scandalized by the headlines in newspapers and magazines on the racks of a local newsstand.

She decides to write an(imaginary) indignant letter to the(now extinct) local tabloid ” Jornal da Tarde” complaining about the current “chaos” and excess of erotic exposure in today’s media,revealing the repressive upbringing of her generation .

Still a virgin(despite the fact that she once had an “intimate relationship “with a male) Maria Emily –like others of a generation born and raised in Brazil before or during the two World Wars which once had authoritian fathers and chaperones on dates—is repressed sexuality in a nation and culture supposed sexually liberated .

What flows are thoughts and recollections which vary from depressing,sad to amusing of moments ,opportunities,friends and perhaps a life lost in this adaption by Silvia Monte.

(Imagine if Maria Emilia were really alive in these troubled times?)

The monologue is an adaption of a short story (1977) Lygia Fagundes Telles,who died at 104 years of age in 2022 .

The popular author was a member of Sao Paulo´s Academy of Literature and best known for her novel “Ciranda da Pedra “(“Stone Circle,”1954).

Her novels and short stories have been translated worldwide and adapted for the stage and films .

Analu Prestes ,72 ,has a 52-year career in the theater including winning the prestigious Shell Prize.

The rigors of a monologue require this half of a century onstage as this excellent actress –directed by Silvia Monte–so ably displays.