Brazilian folk legend becomes a tragicomedy of betrayal
Redação
Playwright D. B. Frattini publishes his first dramatic work: “Ema’s Children” blends Sergipe folklore, misogyny, and redemption in a timeless 110-page play.
Four decades on stage, one publishing debut
D. B. Frattini marks forty years as a playwright and theater director with an unprecedented milestone: the publication of his first dramatic work. Ema’s Children (Os filhos de Ema), released by Caravana Grupo Editorial, now reaches Brazilian readers after performing on Canadian stages and at international festivals throughout the 1990s. The tragicomedy draws from a rich, underexplored source: the Sergipe folk legend The Three Crowned Ones, documented by sociologist Silvio Romero in his landmark collection Brazilian Folk Tales. Frattini preserves the story’s essential bones while injecting sharp layers of social criticism and raw human emotion.
Ema’s arc: hope, betrayal, unjust punishment
In the Brazilian backlands, three orphaned sisters share a shack and vastly different fates. Ana and Iva have surrendered to poverty and loneliness. Ema still believes in a better future, and that faith catches the ear of a king, who proposes marriage after she promises to bear him three heirs. Her rise to queen ignites her sisters’ jealousy. They swap her newborns for a toad, a snake, and a cat. Deceived, the king sentences his own wife to be buried alive at the castle entrance, exposed to the ridicule of every passerby. The scene crystallizes the play’s central argument: the brutal machinery of institutionalized misogyny.
“Solano has taken a petty grudge against that king of yours, a hatred without measure. He took a disgust the day the king ordered his own wife buried alive — Queen Ema, standing there at the palace entrance to be spat upon by anyone who passes.” (Ema’s Children, p. 81)
The children and the road to redemption
The three infants, cast into the sea by the treacherous sisters, are rescued by a fishing family. They grow up facing powerful spells and steep adversity, yet destiny shields them. Their journey toward reclaiming their royal lineage drives the second and third acts, combining the structure of Greek tragedy with the spirit of popular fable. Divided into three acts, the work weaves folklore and classical tragedy to address issues that remain pressing today: female madness as a social construct, economic inequality, corruption, and resistance to totalitarianism. The universality of its conflicts ensures the play speaks as forcefully now as it did three decades ago.
The playwright’s own words
“This is the first publication of my dramatic writing. A writer must show all the faces of their craft. I am old and I do not want to leave this work in a drawer. I do not want to die, I do not want it to die. The greatest reason? That treasure which sustains humanity: memory.” — D. B. Frattini
The statement reveals more than personal motivation. It signals the emotional weight of this publication: a playwright who spent forty years creating for the stage and finally decided to hand his work to the reading world.
Book details
Title: Os filhos de Ema (Ema’s Children) Author: D. B. Frattini Publisher: Caravana Grupo Editorial ISBN: 978-65-5223-6296 Pages: 110 Price: BRL 70 (print edition) Where to buy:caravanagrupoeditorial.com/livro/os-filhos-de-ema/ Photo: Disclosure
