António Barbara Correia, Armando Henriques, Conceição Bota, Corália Moreira, Fernando Domingos, Maria Teresa Antónia, Maria Isabel Piecho, Maria das Dores Lopes, Maria Odete Prudêncio, Rosa Maria Santos, Zaida Cruz, Olga Alcobia, Alberto Alcobia, Duartina Felisberto, António Days. These are the names of the artists who will take the stage three times this week at the Grand Auditorium of Teatro Municipal de Portimão, with the play «Eu sou eu».
Although all of them are over 65 years old, none of them are experienced actors. They are part of the Senior Theater Group, promoted by the Parish Council of Portimão, which two years ago hired the director Sofia Brito to develop this work with the elderly.
«The theater group already existed before, but it did a different job. The challenge that we launched to Sofia Brito, as she is linked to dance, to yoga, was to work with the members of the group in another aspect», explains Ana Figueiredo, president of the Parish Council of Portimão.
«The people who make up the group were used to that “normal” theater, in which they memorized a play and then performed it, each wanting to take the lead. Now Sofia has dismantled that, starting by developing another type of values in the group members, such as mutual help, friendship, knowledge between them», added the mayor.
And what makes the play «Eu sou Eu» different? A lot of things! For now, because the text on which it is based has been built over the months of work by director Sofia Brito with her actors. And it was being built from the experiences, the experiences, the stories that the members of the group were sharing in the work sessions.
After a first stage experience last year, as well as now within the scope of the Senior Week in Portimão promoted by the Parish Council, Sofia Brito says that her actors are now «more experienced and more confident in this contemporary work process».
The work that will now culminate in three performances at Tempo, on Thursday the 24th at 16 pm and on Friday at 00 pm and 16 pm, began in March, with work sessions once a week, and now, since September, more frequent. «All of this is part of a lot of dialogue, I bring my questions and they tell many stories. Then you have to transform that into performative terms», says the director, in conversation with the Sul Informação.
This work started from the reading and analysis of the book «Amor e Sex in Salazar's Time», by Isabel Freire, and took a surprising direction, as a result of the trust gained by Sofia Brito with the group and the development of more efficient methodologies, which went through example for yoga classes, body mind centering and creative writing.
«While working with these seniors, I realized that this generation was formed in the context of an authoritarian and constraining society». «They spoke of things that I already knew, but that were exposed in such a way that they took on a very strong impact and dimension, which particularly touched me». But what were those things?
«The 48 years of dictatorship and an authoritarian and conservative society marked very profound aspects, such as emotional expression, the relationship with the body, the parent/child relationship down to the emotional and authority level». «The fact that they were able to express themselves or not, that affected the whole relationship with the body and not just sexuality. If physical contact is so repressed, so embarrassing, what does that cause? We worked a lot on these issues».
It is from these «subtle taboos», this «series of very strong conventions and behaviors that are so widely agreed that no one questions» that the work was developed. «I come from contemporary dance and that's why I'm very sensitive to these issues of the body», adds Sofia Brito.
The piece «Eu sou Eu» starts from all of this – it starts around conventions, constraints, authority and standards, continues with a moment of rupture, a cry of revolt, acceptance of the body, its reality and the changes that time brings him, «we are who we are», and ends with a «utopia of freedom», of a freedom made of choices. «The piece ends with finding the feeling again, invoking small memories of moments of choices in which we change our lives».
The mayor Ana Figueiredo, who has already attended rehearsals of the play, considers the moment of the «Map of the Body» to be particularly touching. But she doesn't want to go any further, so as not to spoil the effect of discovery that «I am I» is supposed to provoke in the public. Especially because, as director Sofia Brito revealed, the show ends with «a surprise».
For the 16 actors in this Portimão Senior Theater Group, reaching this age and still being able to learn and have new experiences is «very, very rewarding».
But the young director Sofia Brito also says that she has learned a lot: «I have to invent new methodologies for each situation, and that makes me evolve a lot at a pedagogical level».
After talking with Sul Informação, the director goes to the center of the stage of the large Tempo auditorium, where the actors are already waiting for her. There are only a few days left for the premiere and the last details of the show need to be settled. There is nervousness and excitement in the air.
«After the Mapa do Corpo, they get dressed and these three men don't leave the stage anymore», explains Sofia Brito, to the group that follows her attentively.
To find out how all this works on stage, all you have to do is go to Tempo, in Portimão, on Thursday, the 24th, at 16 pm, or on Friday, at 00 pm and 16 pm.
O Tempo, Sofia Brito and the Portimão Senior Theater Group
Since June 2010, O Tempo – Teatro Municipal de Portimão has supported and hosted the Senior Theater Group of the Parish Council of Portimão.
This is a group made up of seniors aged between 65 and 80 who regularly rehearse in the Tempo spaces, which is promoted by the Parish Council of Portimão.
She currently has Sofia Brito as advisor and director, a young dancer and choreographer who studied at PARTS/Anne Teresa de Keersmaker in Brussels and who now resides in Lagos.
It is a project that has generated very interesting dynamics, with an impact not only on the personal lives of the participants – all retired and residing in the municipality of Portimão – but also on the relationship that has developed with the Teatro Municipal team.
«This project, and this coexistence, helped this group to become an active and critical audience for our shows. It is therefore an extremely interesting institutional and community interaction experience», explain those responsible for Tempo.
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