Nelson Rodrigues

August 23, 1912 — Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Nelson Falcão Rodrigues was a Brazilian playwright, journalist and novelist. In 1943, he helped usher in a new era in Brazilian theater with his play Vestido de Noiva (The Wedding Dress), considered revolutionary for the complex exploration of its characters' psychology and its use of colloquial dialog. He went on to write many other seminal plays and today is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest playwright. His plays usually dealt with topics considered taboo by Brazilian society, such as sexuality, virginity and incest, denouncing the hypocrisy of family life in the middle and upper classes.