The Algarve and Alentejo are the last regions where the National Odyssey of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II passes through, which closed in January for works and has been traveling throughout the country.
After having passed through the North and Center regions of the country, in the first and second quarter of the year, respectively, the Azores, in July, and Madeira, in September, the Theater now arrives in the south of the country with a program that takes place in 24 municipalities in the Algarve and Alentejo, between October and December.
The National Odyssey to the South program starts at the end of this month, with the public presentation of the participation project Penelope (on September 29th and October 1st), which is being developed by the UMCOLETIVO structure, in Mértola.
At the same time, the exhibition “Who are you? – A national theater looking at the country”, curated by Tiago Bartolomeu Costa. The Commemorative Commission for the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April and the National Theater and Dance Museum now arrives in Évora, where it will be on display in the Casa de Burgos Exhibition Gallery and in the Public Library of Évora, between the 30th of September and the 21st of October.
Using documentary materials – costumes and costumes, photographs, sound and audiovisual recordings, programs, props, press – the exhibition Who are you? produces a critical commentary on the social and political history that the country has built, starting from the history of the D. Maria II National Theater and the Rey Colaço-Robles Monteiro Company, from the Estado Novo dictatorship to the present. After Évora, it can also be visited in Sines, from the 28th of October to the 18th of November, and in Faro, from November 24th to December 16th.
Over the course of three months, Alentejo and Algarve will be the stage for the presentation of 9 shows (4 of them, in their national debut), 11 participation projects, developed with communities in 16 municipalities, shows for schools, theater laboratories and activities for all levels of education, a free training program aimed at artists and cultural professionals and also a thought event (Future Scenarios), which will take place in Loulé on the 15th and 16th of December and where the aim is to design new paths for national culture.
Of the shows on tour in the last quarter of the year, two have their absolute debut scheduled for Alentejo and two will debut in the Algarve.
“Farsa de Inês Pereira”, a production by Pedro Penim, based on Gil Vicente, premieres in Évora on October 20th, the same day that the text of the show will be released in book form, in a TNDM II / Bicho-do edition -Mato (collection Theater Texts). 500 years after the first presentation ofThe Farce of Inês Pereira, Pedro Penim proposes a reinterpretation of this classic, in a production that features Ana Tang, Bernardo de Lacerda, David Costa, Hugo van der Ding, João Abreu, Rita Blanco and Sandro Feliciano in the cast.
“Batalha”, a production by João de Brito, from the Algarve company LAMA Teatro, based on an original text by Sandro William Junqueira, has its premiere scheduled for Faro, on the 3th of November.
The presentation of the show will be preceded by the launch of the book with the original text, which will be part of the TNDM II / Bicho-do-Mato Theater Texts collection. This is the third co-production that D. Maria II has carried out this year with artistic companies outside the Porto-Lisbon axis, after having worked with Teatro da Didascália in the first quarter of the year and with the company Terceira Pessoa in the second quarter.
“Homo Sacer”, a creation of the artistic structure Bestiário and the actress and activist Maria Gil, premieres on November 24th in Montemor-o-Novo and continues its tour of Alentejo until the end of the year. Using the book as a reference Homo Sacer and the gypsies, by Roswitha Scholz, this creation seeks, from an anthropological and political perspective, to reflect on antigypsyism.
At the end of the year, on December 15th, Loulé hosts the national premiere of “La Vie Invisible”, a show by French director Lorraine de Sagazan, with text by Guillaume Poix, written based on testimonies from blind and visually impaired people. The day before, the book with the Portuguese translation of this dramaturgical text is launched, in a TNDM II / Bicho-do-Mato edition (collection Theater Texts).
In addition to these premieres, they will also be traveling through Alentejo and the Algarve “descobri-quê?, a creation by Cátia Pinheiro, Dori Nigro and José Nunes; “Still Marianas”, by Catarina Rôlo Salgueiro and Leonor Buescu / Os Possessos, from New Portuguese Letters, by Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta and Maria João Velho da Costa, and their trial (a creation integrated into the Eunice Ageas Network, an initiative of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II and the Ageas Portugal Group); “Nau Nau Maria”, created and directed by Alice Azevedo and integrated into the Próxima Cena project, an initiative of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, BPI and the ”la Caixa” Foundation; “The Misanthrope – by Hugo Van der Ding and Martim Sousa Tavares based on Molière, directed by Mónica Garnel; and also “Viagem por mim terra”, a writing project developed by Mozambican playwright Venâncio Calisto and which will feature two readings staged in the south of the country.
With the National Odyssey project, the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II will be present throughout the national territory, over the course of a year, intervening in regions where there is already a strong creative dynamic, but also being a catalyst for the cultural life of communities where there is less access to artistic practices, with a particular focus on the interior of the country, contributing to the development of cultural democracy.
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