The folk theatre of North-Eastern Brazil has been given scant critical attention in the past. Even within Brazil itself attention has been largely concentrated in the writings of folklorists, musicologists, and those interested in popular dance. Marco Camarotti Rosa's article is the first attempt to provide comprehensive coverage of the activity as theatre. In describing the four major forms, with some reference to the proliferation of deviations from the norm which are bound to occur when performance is rooted in the oral rather than literary tradition, the article draws attention away from a futile search for historic precedents and stages of development in favour of viewing the performances as they are now, and considering the part they play in the hard-working lives of the communities of North-Eastern Brazil. Marco Camarotti Rosa is a Lecturer in the Department of Theory of Art and Artistic Expression in the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE).