The performance ‘Reenact Now #2: The Island of Slaves (1969 – 2025)’ draws from a script first staged in 1969, which itself was based on the play ‘The Island of Slaves’ by 18th-century French playwright Pierre de Marivaux. TAGV described this as “a space of confrontation between slaves and masters, set somewhere in the universe of Ancient Greece, where the inversion of social roles represents an important effort to renew the existing order and a reflection on the human condition” in a note to Lusa news agency.
“In the late sixties, amidst the gunpowder scent that intoxicated students and foreshadowed April, the text of the French playwright was presented for the first time in Portugal, freely translated and updated by the TEUC” [Coimbra University Student Theater].
“The 18th-century plot, approved by the censors, transformed into a burlesque claim for freedom and the renewal of Portuguese theater, which had academic theater groups as its main allies,” highlighted TAGV.
At the time, after a few performances, the TEUC production was banned “because the censorship realized that merely analyzing the dramatic text was no longer enough to understand the intentions of the questioned,” according to TAGV.
This year, the commemoration of World Theatre Day in Coimbra, with a presentation scheduled for Thursday at 21:30 by the Visões Úteis company, showcases a project “whose main objective involves, a priori, an impossible condition: going back in time,” noted TAGV.
Cited in the note, Joana Ferrajão, director of the second edition of ‘Reenact Now’, remarked that she was welcomed “with open doors” to the TEUC archives, “with the generosity and ease that characterize the 87 years of history they harbor.”
“But I quickly realized it was necessary to think beyond the limits of an organized room, with objects properly inventoried and preserved. The lost and torn papers, the dust, the dampness of the walls, also told a story,” she emphasized.
In the archive, the playwright found the script of ‘The Island of Slaves’, the production dossier, and the contestation documents from TEUC regarding the performance ban.
“Later, I found a video recording from RTP and the lead actor of the 1969 performance, José Oliveira Barata. From them, I began to think about reconstructing the performance,” she explained.
The ‘Reenact Now’ project had its first edition in 2023, directed by Carlota Castro, based on the FITEI archive – the Iberian Expression International Theater Festival, particularly the play ‘Ibéria Sector 5’ by the Bonifrates Company.
“Now it’s Joana Ferrajão’s turn to take a plunge into the TEUC archive, involving the Visões Úteis company in the journey,” stated TAGV.
