‘Ruthinha, Ruthinha…’: Marcos Frota celebrates the return of Tonho da Lua to TV

The protagonists were the sweet Ruth and the unscrupulous Raquel, twin sisters played by Gloria Pires in “Mulheres de Areia”. Orbiting around the two, there was a special character: Tonho da Lua, role played by Marcos Frota -20 years earlier, on TV Tupi, Gianfrancesco Guarnieri (1934-2006) was responsible, also with great success, for giving life to the sculptor of sand.

Tonho generated empathy with his simple and naive way. He had a mental disability that was aggravated when he was still a child, after witnessing his father’s death —throughout the chapters of the telenovela, which gets a new rerun on Globo from the 26th of this month, one of his great wishes is remember his face so I can sculpt it.

He strains, he tries to look for his father’s face in the corners of his memory, but he can’t. He penalizes himself, slaps himself in the face, and thus captivates and moves viewers with his real dramas.

There was also the platonic love for Ruth and her attachment to a colorful bag, which she carried up and down the fictional coastal town of Pontal D’Areia. This combination of factors, combined with the actor’s touching interpretation, made Brazil fall in love with Da Lua. In an interview with F5, Frota fondly remembers the character. “Tonho taught me unconditional love. He is the richest, most beautiful, what makes you grow”, she says.

Eager to see the reaction of the new generation with the rerun of the soap opera, Frota believes that the character has become timeless due to the way he conducts his story. Much more than a costume detail, the little bag that Tonho was carrying also impressed the public and expressed optimism, according to the actor.

“It was colorful and the directors helped transform the bag into an element of the scene. I understand that it was a magical moment, seeing it today. I tried to impregnate Tonho’s story with my joy and gratitude for experiencing a beautiful moment on TV”, he says. , who went through a difficult phase in her personal life at the same time she was recording the telenovela. His wife, Cibele Ferreira, died in a car accident at that time.

Back then, the passion for acting ran parallel to Frota’s true fixation on the circus arts. In addition to being a trapeze artist, a trade that emerged in his life after acting as a professional in this area in “Cambalacho” (1986), the actor became a circus owner.

In the 1990s, he launched the Grande Circo Popular do Brasil and, today, he goes on the road with the Mirage Circus, which currently has a season in Porto Alegre (RS). He believes that the national circus is going through a good moment, without numbers involving animals (“They have become obsolete”), and with more acrobatic dance performances à la Cirque Du Soleil. “There are two thousand of them spread across the country, all with plenty of space. A new generation has emerged, the Brazilian circus has reinvented itself and is experiencing a prosperous moment”, he celebrates.