Does the story end badly? Says Miguel Jesus that “it ends in a question mark. If we are neither good nor bad, we are not better, where are we going? It seems to me that now, especially in this moment we are living in, it is good to ask ourselves questions.
Half a century of O Bando Theater
After the CCB, Agustinópolis Go to the Luísa Todi Forum, in Setúbal, between October 24th and 26th, for the Teatro Nacional São João, from October 30th to November 2nd, and Centro Cultural Vila Flor, on November 22nd.
With this show, Teatro O Bando ends the celebrations of its fiftieth anniversary. And what assessment does João Brites make of this long journey? “I want to share with people this idea that sometimes what seems impossible isn’t. Because I didn’t imagine that a group like this, which started as a child, a collective group, managed by a cooperative, would be able to survive 50 years. This is an example that what seems impossible turns out to be possible.”
Challenged to choose one of the most important events in the company’s life, João Brites remembers Animalsa play that originally premiered in Lisbon, in 1990. “When we replenished Animals in Coimbra, at the inauguration of the S. Francisco Cultural and Congress Center, a city where we had already done the show with Miguel Torga watching [no dia 23 de novembro de 1990, no âmbito da Bienal Universitária de Coimbra, ainda o escritor era vivo]”.
The play, based on Miguel Torga’s short stories, would be performed again in Coimbra, in 2016. “Sometimes we felt alone, but we learned that there were 20 thousand people who tried to see the show. We had to put on an additional show, but none of that reached the people who had signed up. Sometimes it seems like things have passed, no one cares about us anymore, but we know that there is an idea, a project, a philosophy of life that remains and is transmissible.”