Somos todos Baba Yaga, named after the Slavic folklore witch symbolizing the power to start anew at any age, stated Beatriz Teodósio. She is the author of the original text, as well as the director, performer, and artistic director of the Sociedade das Primas – Associação Cultural.
Inspired by her maternal grandmother’s dream, interrupted 60 years ago when she was an actress in Covilhã and married at 19, Beatriz Teodósio decided to reconstruct her grandmother’s story. This fictional reunion also weaves in testimonies gathered from resident actresses at Casa do Artista in Lisbon, Teodósio shared.
Combining inherited memories and gestures to craft “what could have been and still can be,” “Somos todos Baba Yaga” unfolds between “the intimate and the collective, the documentary and the fiction,” also drawing from the testimonies of actresses sharing stories of “resistance and persistence,” giving voice to those who persisted and maintained their creative drive, as well as those who played different roles, she noted.
The decision of her grandmother to abandon “the dream” of being an actress to marry and have children was “always a very happy memory” in Beatriz Teodósio’s life, she observed. Yet, it left her with “unease,” especially as she began her theater profession, prompting her to question “what causes us not to continue a dream.”
Teodósio’s aim is to celebrate the women who “came before” and “fought, created, and lived their art and daily life as a resistance for human rights.”
She seeks to continue this principle with the play, for both contemporary artists and those of the future, stressing that it led her to “realize that telling the story of one woman, in this case, her grandmother, can contain many stories.”
“A grandmother’s story is never just hers; it essentially carries an entire generation behind her, and I began with this intimate story. From my grandmother, I discovered others” who followed an artistic life, leaving “many things behind,” such as “marriage or having children” to pursue artistic endeavors.
“Somos todas Baba Yaga” also highlights the “no and yes” resulting from personal choices, along with the issues faced by the artists she interviewed, whose narratives pointed “all” to the challenges encountered on their chosen paths.
Operating at night, living that life, and “with financially undervalued wages,” as “still happens today with culture,” caused the public opinion of the time to undervalue the profession, even labeling them “loose,” she noted.
A prejudice that, for Beatriz Teodósio, “is still just beneath the surface.”
“Perhaps not in the same way, but, as I say in the show, only the form changes, but the context is still here,” she stated.
Co-produced by Teatro Art’Imagem in Porto, where the Sociedade das Primas – Associação Cultural engaged in a residency to develop the show, and by Casa do Artista, the play reprises on the 15th at Teatro Armando Cortez, also at 21:00.
Alongside Teodósio, the performance features Fred Botta and Gó, with Beatriz Mestre aiding in creation, Francisco Sampaio responsible for set design and costumes, Isaac Veloso handling sound, and Bee Barros & Naiana Padial managing lighting design. Psychiatrist and author Daniel Sampaio supports the dramaturgy, while Patrícia Portela handles text revision.
António Bollaño provides movement support, video by Beatriz Mestre and Martinho Filipe, and assistance in set and costume design by Rita Madeira.
On the 22nd, at 21:30, the play will be presented at Sociedade Filarmónica União Arrentelense as part of the 42nd Seixal Theater Festival, with performances on January 15 and 16, timing yet to be confirmed, in the auditorium of the Municipal Library of Marvila, Lisbon.
