UNDERGROUND, AN OBSCURE MUSICAL is a collaboration between the Portuguese Má-Criação and the Brazilian groups Foguetes Maravilha and Dimenti, gathering artists who have been working together on both sides of the Atlantic since 2009. The starting point for this project was the news about the 33 men trapped in a cave-in at San José Mine in Chile, in 2010. The days turned into weeks, that turned into months until they were rescued, all the while stuck in a small cave 700 metres deep and perhaps telling each other stories.
The image of a group of people trapped underground acted as a catalyst to talk about the world that surrounds us and continuously challenges us with walls, fires, bombs and speeches. This cave isn’t a safe stable place, but a territory in constant motion, swallowing itself, an obscure territory where bodies and shadows merge together. This show is heard before it is seen; at times, the brief glow of a torch, a lantern, a beacon pierces through the gloom. In that darkness, performers and spectators are able to sleep, perchance to dream.
concept Alex Cassal and Paula Diogo text Alex Cassal and Felipe Rocha direction Paula Diogo and Renato Linhares performance Alegria Gomes, Cláudia Gaiolas, Crista Alfaiate, Fábio Osório Monteiro, Felipe Rocha, João Lopes Pereira, Marco Mendonça, Renato Linhares and Yaw Tembe substitute performer João Almeida musical direction and original score Felipe Rocha light design Tomás Ribas light design assistant André Boneco set design Fernando Ribeiro set design assistant Saulo Santos costumes José António Tenente sound design Sérgio Henriques sound design assistants Francisco Serrano and Gonçalo Carlos dramaturgical support and translations Joana Frazão stand-in musician João Almeida production director Paula Diogo and Daniela Ribeiro executive production Carlos Alves, Ana Barros and Fábio Osório Monteiro communication Carlos Alves photos Estelle Valente and João Tuna residencies O Espaço do Tempo and Centro de Experimentação Artística do Vale da Amoreira/Moita production Má-Criação, Dimenti and Foguetes Maravilha coproduction São Luiz Teatro Municipal partner CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva support Galeria Zé dos Bois communication support Antena 2
project financed by República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direção Geral das Artes
Má-Criação is a structure supported by the Lisbon City Council and housed in Alkantara.
Paula Diogo’s work is supported by apap – FEMINIST FUTURES – a project co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union.
OPENING
São Luiz Teatro Municipal, Lisbon PT, July 2022
TOUR
São Luiz Teatro Municipal (on-line), Lisbon PT, July 2022
Lisbon Correctional Facility (on-line), Lisbon PT, July 2022
FITEI – International Theatre Festival of Iberian Expression, Oporto PT, May 2023
Mirada Festival Ibero-Americano de Artes Cênicas, Santos BR, September 2024