A presentation scheduled for the Attic Room of the Coliseu do Porto marks the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Associação Amigos do Coliseu do Porto, which began as a spontaneous movement of popular activism.
The piece, directed artistically by Pedro Lamares with the assistance of actors and musicians Carolina Rocha and Carlos Correia, is the result of a collective effort involving 25 participants aged 18 to 82 from diverse professions and backgrounds.
The performance is based on poetic texts by Alexandre O’Neill, Sophia de Mello Breyner, and Jorge Sena, among others, as well as press clippings and a reflection by Mia Couto titled ‘Morar o Medo’, which inspired the play’s title.
Pedro Lamares explained to Lusa that the dramaturgy, developed collaboratively with the 25 participants, “is not linear” and does not follow a traditional narrative structure.
The director stated that the play addresses themes such as “war, fear, silence, oppression, violence against women, and violence against children”, creating a “kind of amalgam” of social issues.
“In fact, the show starts more or less at the end,” he revealed, noting that the opening text is by Alexandre O’Neill, titled “Perfilados de medo”, set to music by José Mário Branco, whose compositions appear at various moments in the play.
The work of Eduardo Alves da Costa, a living Brazilian poet, also takes the stage with a poem written during Brazil’s military dictatorship, leading to an explosive moment representing the notion of war.
“Then we start everything from the beginning, we start with birth,” he added.
Lamares, who has been exploring the theme for at least 10 years, observed that the use of fear as a tool of social manipulation is increasingly relevant, echoing historical cycles where fear was used to control populations in “all tyrannical, autocratic, dictatorial regimes”.
The director draws parallels to the present, noting that there is a “concerted project with a political agenda across the West, with a common theme of generating chaos through fear,” even through “false narratives,” as seen in the rise of the far-right in countries like Italy, Poland, Turkey, or Sweden, and the elections of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the United States.
“Since this is a group that proposes to reflect on current political issues, inequalities, and injustices, it seemed quite logical to begin the first project with the foundation of this structure of chaos, which is fear,” he explained.
However, the director emphasizes that the play does not aim to “indoctrinate” but to “provoke reflection”.
Admission is free, but tickets must be collected in advance, with limited seating available.
Organized by the Educational Service of the Coliseu, and with artistic direction, training, and dramaturgy by Pedro Lamares, the Activist Theater Club (CTA) was founded in November 2024 as part of the 30th-anniversary celebrations of the Associação Amigos do Coliseu do Porto.
The project, noted by the theater’s president Miguel Guedes in a press release, “keeps alive the memory of a space that belongs to everyone” and “reinforces the mission of promoting art as a vehicle for change and social awareness”.
