Between Androgyny and Drag: Dzi Croquettes on the Brazilian Theatre Stage, 1972 / 2012

Abstract: In the 1970s, Dzi Croquettes was an all-male troupe that revolutionized Brazilian theatre and dance at a time of dictatorial military ruling and increased censorship. Branding themselves as “androgynous,” they mixed cross-dressing, comedy, and cabaret aesthetics that pushed the limits of gender performance, which eventually led to their exile in Europe. In 2012, Ciro Barcelos, one of the surviving members, created a tribute musical of the same name, Dzi Croquettes. I analyze the work by Dzi Croquettes in the 1970s and Barcelos’s musical to offer a diachronic approach to the study of androgyny and drag as political performance. I introduce the term dzi androgyny to describe an embodied dramaturgy and philosophy particular to the one Dzi Croquettes performed as they faced censorship. Repurposed forty years later, Barcelos’s musical evidences a “re-presentation,” meaning a re-introduction, of a historically grounded aesthetic that puts Dzi Croquettes in conversation with contemporary forms of drag.