Edinburgh Fringe's Brazilian blend

IT's a blazing hot day at the Udderbelly tent on London's South Bank and Toby Gough has just had a couple of the hardest days of his life.

Two days ago Brazil lost to Holland in the World Cup and the director and impresario had the task of galvanising a cast of heavily depressed Brazilians into performing a show about the joy of football.

By the time it gets to Edinburgh next month he hopes the cast of Brazil! Brazil! – which incorporates Brazilian music, martial arts and dance – will be back to normal.

"The last two days the whole cast has been in mourning," he says. "Getting anyone onstage to celebrate Brazilian culture and football has been the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life."

In London Brazil! Brazil! has been part of Jude Kelly's Festival Brazil – but it was Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood of Edinburgh Fringe venue the Underbelly who encouraged Toby Gough to incorporate a football element. In true PT Barnum style Gough hopped on a plane to Brazil and came back with the Brazilian Freestyle Soccer Skills champion.

Arthur Mansilla is the show's secret weapon, and as soon as Gough saw him performing on the beach at Rio he knew he wanted him to be part of the show. "He was doing all sorts of tricks and he drew a crowd of around 250 people in a few minutes. He is a great special effect."

Arthur's ball skills are a truly eye-popping part of the show. The ball seems to be attached by a magnetic force to the end of his foot and he spins, rolls and manipulates it in a way which is quite extraordinary.

Gough insists he once found Arthur alone in a hotel room, lying on his back in the dark and juggling the ball in the air. "He has a very deep and profound relationship with that ball, that is for sure," says singer Magary Lord, shaking his head. Unfortunately, on the day we are supposed to meet 20-year-old Arthur he is nowhere to be found. He turns up two hours later looking sheepish – he has been away practising with his ball. He's feeling a bit shy about the attention.

"This is all a new experience for me," he says. "It was difficult at first to work with the actors and musicians on stage. But it is not difficult to work with music. When we do freestyle performances we do it with music – often with DJs. We don't really play football – only for fun."

Daniel Madman Dennehy – a half-Brazilian, half-Irish freestyle enthusiast who is listed as Football Consultant on the Brazil! Brazil! programme – says Freestyle Soccer is growing into an international phenomena as young kids around the world share skills and pass on tricks online. "It is such a new art form. You have to keep up. Every few days there is a new trick on the internet."

Although Gough was undoubtedly hoping Brazil would win the World Cup and give Brazil! Brazil! the kind of publicity that can't be bought, he also believes there is a strong connection between Brazilian football and the Brazilian capoeira, the blend of martial arts, music, and dance. "Both football and capoeira give people a sense of community, a sense of direction and a sense of strength. And the brilliant style of Brazilian football came out of Ginga (the swinging movement in Capoeira] You need Ginga to sing a good song, you need ginga to dance in capoeira and the skills you see in football are when you try to dodge through the obstacles in life – which is what these guys do.

"I'm doing this show to try and bring together all these ways that so much spirit came out of so much suffering. Despite what happened two days ago, Brazil are still five times world champions – the greatest football-playing country in the world."

The social benefits of football, martial arts and music are also an important strand of Gough's vision. Many of the performers in his group are engaged in social work projects in Brazil, which has enormous social problems.

"There is a huge social conscience. These guys all work with NGOs and run social projects for young people. It is a huge thing for Brazilians that the arts should contribute to the community. There is a huge belief that the arts and the social services should work together – and that is a huge part of the appeal for me. In fact, that is where my involvement came from – I was running social projects in Salvador to encourage young people to consider the arts as a valid lifestyle."

For young people on the streets of Salvador football and music can both be a way out of a life of tremendous suffering. But one of the problems Gough sometimes has is that the Brazilians – with their "relentlessly sunshiney" nature – are unwilling to discuss or linger on the problems of the communities they have grown up in.

Singer Paloma Gomes, who grew up in a favela with terrible social deprivation, is training to become a voice therapist. She winces when Gough tells the well-worn story about how he found her singing on the beach at Rio. But when pushed she acknowledges that without the pioneering music project run by musician and social visionary Carlinhos Brown she would not be in London today. "I had to stop school many times for different reasons – but the school was always ready to accept me back," she says.

"The school is not just there to teach you to be a musician, it also shows you how to be a citizen – how to live your life in society as a musician. Carlinhos Brown was an angel sent from God. He gave us so many opportunities. Without him I would not be here."

Part of Gough's vision this year is to raise money for the Life Change Appeal – which will use the arts to spearhead grassroots health schemes to tackle neglected tropical diseases. But Brazil! Brazil! is also a chance for him to return to directing after getting swept up in running The World venue – which will not be returning this year. "Last year I was responsible for 124 people. I had people from Malawi, from Ethiopia, from Cuba, Tanzania and Haiti and I was also writing directing and producing the show."

He hopes that the opportunity to concentrate will allow him to recreate the success of his hit Lady Salsa, which ran in the West End for two and a half years. "My aim is to bring this show on. It is a great family show – the Brazilians are great family people and they love having kids in the audience. It's a big contagious show. We are hoping to make the heart of Scotland bump with the rhythms of Brazil."

• Brazil! Brazil! is at Udderbelly's Pasture, 5-30 August, as part of the Edinburgh Fringe.