A show that doesn’t start. A corpse lying on stage. An apocalyptic blizzard that will imprison the spectators inside the theatre for many, many years. And now, what can we do to pass the time? DYING IN THE THEATRE is a quasi-monologue on death and the theatre. The basic premise is the same found in disaster films, where an isolated group of survivors must build a new model of society. An actor narrates the future that awaits us if we are stuck in here – these specific people, on this specific night, in this specific place. It is a narrative that intertwines descriptions of wakes, anthropophagic recipes, transcendental orgasms, and a fine selection of excerpts from world drama. And also a huge bonfire to keep us warm during winter. In DYING IN THE THEATRE, we use theatre’s conventions to test its limits. An actor, an audience, a story between these two extremes. But the actor who tells us this story is not alone on stage (and that’s why we describe it as a quasi-monologue). There is a body lying at his feet: a character that demands a different actor every time, someone who has never performed in a theatre before. A premiere every night. A new death every night.
dramaturgy and direction Alex Cassal performed by Marco Paiva and a different amateur actor in every performance light design Tomás Ribas movement direction Márcia Lança set design Alex Cassal and Aurora dos Campos dramaturgical research Joana Frazão photography Bruno Simão executive production Carlos Alves and Daniela Ribeiro production Má-Criação coproduction Maria Matos Teatro Municipal – 2017/18 Season residencies O Espaço do Tempo, Alkantara, Centro de Experimentação Artística do Vale da Amoreira – Moita, AZALA – Espacio de Creación (ES)
support Culturgest, ESTC – Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema financial support Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, GDA Foundation
Selected text EURODRAM 2020 – European network for drama in translation
OPeninG
Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias, Funchal PT, January 2019
TOuR
Teatro do Bairro Alto, Lisbon PT, December 2019
Festival Y, Castelo Branco PT, June 2021
Cultura em Expansão, Oporto PT, December 2022
FIDAE Festival Internacional de Artes Escénicas, Paysandu UY, August 2024