“The loss of youthful love or the loss of youth” is how director António Simão described the play during a rehearsal of the text, marking his first foray into a “repertoire” work.
Invited by the company led by Maria João Luís and Pedro Domingos to direct a play, António Simão, who has been with Artistas Unidos since 1995, chose the text for two reasons: on a personal level, because it reminded him of important things such as youth and youthful love, and on a professional level, due to the desire to work with a text different from those he is used to staging.
“It’s not a Greek classic, it’s not Shakespeare, but it’s shortly after that, it’s a contemporary classic, and I have this desire to work with such a text,” he noted about the play he is now staging which, besides its unique characteristics, “has an obvious worldview and should not disappear; it is part of history.”
Characterized by “abrupt changes and a certain abandonment of a more classical structure,” “When We Dead Awaken” is built upon a more “Wagnerian” structure, he noted. “Because, despite having a ‘leitmotiv’, the rest are tableaux that unfold,” he argued.
The action of the play, written by the Norwegian writer in 1899, revolves around the sculptor Arnold Rubek who, after spending some time abroad, returns to Norway for the summer with his wife, Maja, whose artistic insensitivity dissatisfies him.
Despite the success achieved with the masterpiece that made him famous, Rubek feels frustrated upon realizing that he abandoned love and happiness, betraying his art.
This is when he encounters Irene, the woman who, after serving as his model and inspiration for the work that brought him critical acclaim, had drifted away.
Irene accuses Rubek of having stolen her soul and drained her energy, destroying her dreams and life by exposing her nudity as an artistic object without considering what it meant for her.
The reunion between Irene and Rubek presents the possibility of going back and correcting past mistakes.
“When We Dead Awaken” is a largely unperformed play even though the author himself referred to it as the “closure” of the cycle he began with “A Doll’s House”, written twenty years earlier and one of the most performed texts by the playwright who was a forerunner of realism.
“A nervous, anxious play about the end of life,” with which Ibsen “creates a sort of synthesis […] in the sense of foreseeing some modernity that was to come,” observed António Simão.
Little more than two round tables, two chairs, and two wood structures resembling steps complete the set of the play where the author crafts the summation of a life, emphasizing the essentials in the affections, spirit, and freedom of the young Maja.
“When We Dead Awaken,” like most of Ibsen’s texts “require actors with some experience and, above all, older ones,” which is why he also sought out actor and friend Marcello Urgeghe, with whom he had never worked before.
Asked why he chose a repertoire text, António Simão stated that nowadays almost no repertoire theater is done in Portugal, admitting that sometimes he misses going to see an “Othello”, “Richard III”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “Oedipus Rex” or “Death of a Salesman”.
While in literature “we go to the library,” in music, “to certain concerts during Christmas,” currently, in theater as well as opera, what exists “are either some revisited, adaptations, or reinterpretations, so there’s never the opportunity to see the complete play,” he argued.
“But all this can be worked out,” he defended, citing as an example that to perform Gil Vicente or even Shakespeare with some regularity “there would have to be companies with structures that would allow this type of work,” because there are actors.
António Simão stressed, however, that he doesn’t have that “political-cultural concern,” emphasizing that the choice of this Ibsen text was because he was “fascinated” by the character of Irene: “For the suffering of a woman who lost the love she idealized, the life she idealized and who, also like ‘Hedda Gabler,’ unable to live in society, unable to deal with life, remained in a limbo, a stupor, an ethereal zone she never left.”
With translation by Fátima Saadi and Karl Henrik Schollhammer, “When We Dead Awaken” is performed by Maria João Luís, Erica Rodrigues, Sílvia Figueiredo, Marcello Urgeghe, Rúben Gomes, Rodrigo Saraiva, and Filipe Gomes, among others.
The scenography and costumes are by Ana Teresa Castelo, lighting design and production direction by Pedro Domingos, and staging assistance by Sílvia Figueiredo.
The play will be on stage in Seixal until December 13, except on the 11th, with performances from Thursday to Saturday at 9:30 PM.
From December 18 to 21, it will be presented at Cinearte Theater, the headquarters of A Barraca, in Lisbon, with performances from Thursday to Saturday at 9:30 PM, and on Sunday at 5:00 PM.
From February 13 to 15, 2026, the play will be performed at Joaquim Benite Municipal Theater, in Almada, with sessions on Friday and Saturday at 9:00 PM, and Sunday at 4:00 PM.
