Rodrigo Portella’s Tom na Fazenda is part of NYU Skirball’s 2026-27 Season. It is a critically acclaimed, visceral Brazilian adaptation of Canadian playwright Michel Marc Bouchard’s psychosexual thriller Tom à la Ferme (Tom at the Farm). Starring Armando Babaioff as Tom, this production strips away conventional theater sets to create an uninhibited, highly physical explosion of grief, homophobia, and trauma.
Having performed over 600 shows worldwide, the production is widely celebrated for its raw intensity and deep resonance—particularly in the context of contemporary Brazil’s struggles with LGBTQ+ violence.
The play follows Tom, a sophisticated urban advertising executive who travels deep into the rural countryside to attend the funeral of his boyfriend, who died in a tragic accident. Upon arrival, Tom is shocked by two revelations:
- The Mother’s Ignorance: The grieving, hardened mother, Ágatha (played by Denise Del Vecchio), has absolutely no idea her son was gay or that Tom exists. She is left waiting for a fabricated “girlfriend” named Helen.
- The Brother’s Terror: The deceased’s brutal, menacing brother, Francis (played by Iano Salomão), knows the truth but is determined to enforce total ignorance through escalating physical violence, psychological isolation, and fear.
Trapped on the remote dairy farm, Tom becomes entangled in a dangerous, sadomasochistic cat-and-mouse game with Francis, operating under the core thematic weight of the play: “Homosexuals learn to lie before they learn to love.”
Distinctive Elements of Portella’s Staging
- The Minimalist Mud & Blood Set: Portella rejects realistic sets completely. Instead, set designer Aurora dos Campos covers the vast, empty stage in heavy plastic sheeting and thick, dry clay. As the play progresses, buckets of water are dumped onto the stage, turning the entire arena into a slippery, visceral mire of mud and blood.
- Fierce Physicality: The actors do not simply speak; they wrestle, roll, and collapse into the mud. The production functions like an exhausting danse macabre, utilizing intense choreography to convey the characters’ complex interdependency, toxic masculinity, and absolute exposure.
- Explicit Vulnerability: The physical staging culminates in uninhibited full-frontal nudity from Babaioff and Salomão during specific confrontations on the left side of the stage. The stripping away of their clothes mirrors the stripping away of social armor, civilization, and pretense.
Production Cast & Creative Team
- Tom: Armando Babaioff
- Francis: Iano Salomão
- Ágatha: Denise Del Vecchio
- Sara (the fake Helen): Camila Nhary
- Director: Rodrigo Portella
In this internationally acclaimed Brazilian production of Tom na Fazenda, the nudity is explicit and full-frontal.
The extent and context of the nudity in this specific version include:
- Full-Frontal Nudity: Unlike stagings that rely strictly on shadows or underwear, actors Armando Babaioff (Tom) and his co-star (Francis) appear completely nude in specific scenes.
- Specific Blocking: As Babaioff himself revealed on the Brazilian talk show Sem Censura, the full-frontal nudity occurs during two specific scenes located on the left side of the stage. This has become a well-known piece of trivia among theatergoers, often causing tickets on the left side of the auditorium to sell out first.
- Visceral and Uninhibited Context: Portella’s direction is notoriously uninhibited, raw, and physical. The stage is an expansive, minimalist space covered in red soil and water. The characters strip down during highly charged, sadomasochistic confrontations where they are wrestling, covered in mud and blood, to strip away social status and highlight absolute physical vulnerability.
Due to the explicit nature of these scenes alongside themes of intense psychological and physical violence, the Rodrigo Portella production strictly carries an age guidance rating of 18+.
Show Details
- Dates: October 8–10, 2026
- Time: 7:30 PM
- Venue: NYU Skirball (New York City)
- Language: Performed in Portuguese with English surtitles
- Playwright: Michel Marc Bouchard
- Translator & Star: Armando Babaioff (as Tom)
- Director: Rodrigo Portella
Is it stage left audience right or stage right audience left where the nudity happens? Thanks..
Stage left audience right
I think it may be audience left not right. I have seen a discussion on LPSG and several comments say sit on the left side of the audience.