UMZ

Synopsis

A cramped cell in a women’s prison in São Paulo, Brazil, where desperation and desire simmer beneath a veneer of routine

Umzé, a streetwise black woman in her thirties, shares a claustrophobic space with Xaxá, her younger, white cellmate. As night falls, their forced intimacy reveals a complex dance of power, vulnerability, and unexpected tenderness. Umzé, hardened by a life of crime yet unable to read, bristles at Xaxá’s attempts to educate her. Meanwhile, Xaxá, a former kidnapper with delusions of celebrity, battles her own demons and a growing dependence on Umzé’s protection.

Beatriz Gonçalves’s UMZ is a raw, unflinching exploration of survival and connection in the most dehumanising of circumstances. The play’s claustrophobic setting mirrors the characters’ psychological confinement, while moments of pitch-black humour provide fleeting release. Gonçalves deftly weaves themes of race, class, and literacy into the women’s charged interactions, exposing the systemic inequalities that have shaped their lives.