This essay explores what the Teatro Malandro stands for by applying philosophical grids to its shows and to Omar Porras’ statements. Departing from the question of how to understand the sacred and the divine that are frequently mentioned by Porras, wer are led to understand his “beyond” as purely immanent human wholeness. It turns out that his theatrical activity corresponds perfectly to the expectations put into the idea of a “total work of art” from Schiller to Wagner. In contrast to this idealist idea, Porras’ total and global art is rather realist, however. His approach that puts the individual body into the center of the rehearsals, tries first of all to distill the universal out of the singular instead of submitting the latter to the pre-existing universality of text and music. That way, Porras’ is more successful in realizing the ideals of total art than idealist total art was, especially if it only cares about the relation of music and drama by ignoring dance, i.e. the body. The way Teatro Malandro deals with the antagonism of the singular and the universal is representative for its dealing with antagonisms in general.