(1994 - 2002)
"A Rua da Amargura - 14 passos lacrimosos sobre a vida de Jesus" had once again Gabriel Villela leading its creative team. Using the language of melodrama, at times funny and emotional, Grupo Galpão tells the story of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The starting point was an adaptation of a play called "O Mártir do Calvário" [The Martyr of the Calvary], written in 1902 by Eduardo Garrido and staged countless times by every circus-theatrical company that crossed Brazil in the first half of the 20th century. Galpão’s adaptation of Garrido’s play incorporated the musical repertoire, the dances, and other traditions from celebrations of Christmas and Easter in the countryside of Minas Gerais. These were associated with the circus style of interpretation, building a delicate fusion that pays homage to Brazilian folk traditions.

Gabriel Villela’s direction appropriates the Christian myth to dive again into the world of folk culture from Minas Gerais and from Brazil. Galpão’s staging lovingly recreates the naivety in this world, highlighting the lyricism, the poignancy, and the honesty with which these popular manifestations are imbued, testing the boundaries between the sacred and the profane. This Brazil of popular culture appears in the scenery that brings together the simplicity of the nativity scenes with the exuberant contrition of the churches and their ex-votos, rooms devoted to celebrate miracles and graces obtained by the faithful. This popular Brazil is also an important element in the costumes, made out of handmade fabrics, and in the props created out of recycled and handcrafted material.
Balancing humor, poetry, and drama and elaborating with aesthetic vigor the authenticity and simplicity of popular faith, "A Rua da Amargura" reaches its audience through emotion and touches everyone as it brings to the surface the profound meaning of the religious Auto and the theatrical celebration.

A Rua da Amargura won more than twenty awards in several different categories. It was considered the best play performed in Rio de Janeiro in 1994 and won best play award from the most prestigious Brazilian theatrical awards (Sharp, Molière, Shell, and Mambembe). “Rua da Amargura” has already been performed more than two hundred times in twenty cities of eight Brazilian states and seven countries - Portugal, Spain, Canada, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, and Uruguay. In April 2001 the play was adapted to television by Rede Globo de Televisão as "A paixão segundo Ouro Preto" [The Passion According to Ouro Preto]. This TV version of the play was taped in the old city theater and in the streets of the old colonial town and broadcast on the night of Passion Friday.