The theatrical company Os Possessos is set to debut the play ‘Victor ou as crianças no poder’ on Thursday at the Teatro Carlos Alberto in Porto, just over a year after its initial premiere at the former Teatro da Politécnica in Lisbon. This production was among the last shows presented at the venue by Artistas Unidos, which is contributing to this latest rendition.
‘Victor ou as crianças no poder’ is the most renowned work of Roger Vitrac (1899-1952), a key figure in the Dada and French Surrealism movements. Vitrac co-founded the Théâtre Alfred-Jarry alongside Antonin Artaud, who directed its premier in 1928.
This three-act drama navigates through themes of lyricism, irony, and the subversion of bourgeois order, all from the perspective of a child who casts a critical eye over the adult world, challenging societal norms and family conventions while demanding freedom.
The narrative unfolds around two affluent families—The Paumelles, parents of Victor, and the Magneaus, parents of Esther. Set in Paris, the story takes place during a single evening on September 12, 1909, chronicling the events of Victor’s ninth birthday. Within this timeframe, Victor brazenly declares, “I won’t wait another year to be an adult. I am determined to be someone and now is the time!”
According to director João Pedro Mamede, the text “probably has very little” to do with childhood. He explained that childhood serves as a “pretext or starting point for the author to scrutinize or even judge” the surrounding world.
This complex work defies easy categorization as its actions seamlessly intertwine, presenting the day-to-day lives of the Paumelles and the Magneaus with a “surrealistic magnification” that elevates the play to an “absurdity of somewhat obsessed and frivolous people,” where no character manages to assist themselves or others.
The characters, carriers of a “historical memory half-distorted by their fantasies,” suffer from “significant ignorance and alienation,” creating a parallel with contemporary times, the director noted.
João Pedro Mamede mentioned that the company chose to stage ‘Victor ou as crianças no poder’ as a drama, aiming for “the most melancholic tone possible” to also enhance its humor, and to ensure that “things have the necessary contours relative to this contemporaneity, the time we are in,” “amidst various” conflicts, he emphasized, “There is no peace.”
Os Possessos, founded by Catarina Rôlo Salgueiro, João Pedro Mamede, and Nuno Gonçalo Rodrigues in January 2014, stages this production.
Roger Vitrac passed away in Paris at the age of 53. He was a poet and playwright who crafted his first staged work, ‘La Fenêtre Vorace,’ in 1922, although it has since been lost.
Vitrac initially embraced Dadaism and later joined André Breton’s surrealists, from whom he was expelled in 1926. Artaud faced a similar fate, prompting the duo to establish the Théâtre Alfred-Jarry in homage to the author of “Rei Ubu.” This theater launched ‘Victor ou as crianças no poder’ and remained active until 1930.
The play’s success arrived belatedly, gaining recognition in 1962 after director Jean Anouilh staged it at the Théâtre de l’Ambigu, acknowledging its status as a precursor to absurdist theater and cementing its place in the theatrical canon.
In Portugal, the play was first staged in 1970 by the Teatro Estúdio de Lisboa under Luzia Maria Martins and later in 1987 by João Mota’s Comuna.
The current production of ‘Victor ou as crianças no poder’ by Os Possessos features actors Henrique Gil, André Pardal, Ana Amaral, Catarina Rôlo Salgueiro, Isabel Costa, Rafael Gomes, Mia Tomé, Inês Reis, Leonardo Garibaldi, Leonor Buescu, and António Simão, with set design by Bruno Bogarim.
‘Victor ou as crianças no poder’ will run at the Teatro Carlos Alberto until Sunday.
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