THEATER
Premiere
The figure of Mary Magdalen has been, across the centuries, the target of cultural constructs that made her, at different points, a saint and a sinner, a devout and a lover, a caregiver and an apostle. These constructs echo a cultural narrative that places women in a specific place in western society.
Magdalen was imparted the role of caregiver: she feeds, cleans, dresses and mourns the bodies, both opening and closing the cycle of life. She was the one who prepared Christ's dead body for the funeral rites and she was the one who first witnessed the miracle of Resurrection.
Personal contact with the body of the deceased, as an integral part of the mourning process, is something that we - both men and women - are, nowadays, denied. Death has been sanitised, dematerialised, made despicable.
Evoking the symbolic figure of Magdalen, this show aims to recover the right to mourn, a process that allows us, through its several phases - denial, anger, negotiation, sadness and acceptance - to break through the pain and fully return to the land of the living. This play is a way to inscribe death into the reality of life.
At Teatro Viriato, the premiere will have a choir of locals that will collaborate with the creative process.
The figure of Mary Magdalen has been, across the centuries, the target of cultural constructs that made her, at different points, a saint and a sinner, a devout and a lover, a caregiver and an apostle. These constructs echo a cultural narrative that places women in a specific place in western society.
Magdalen was imparted the role of caregiver: she feeds, cleans, dresses and mourns the bodies, both opening and closing the cycle of life. She was the one who prepared Christ's dead body for the funeral rites and she was the one who first witnessed the miracle of Resurrection.
Personal contact with the body of the deceased, as an integral part of the mourning process, is something that we - both men and women - are, nowadays, denied. Death has been sanitised, dematerialised, made despicable.
Evoking the symbolic figure of Magdalen, this show aims to recover the right to mourn, a process that allows us, through its several phases - denial, anger, negotiation, sadness and acceptance - to break through the pain and fully return to the land of the living. This play is a way to inscribe death into the reality of life.
At Teatro Viriato, the premiere will have a choir of locals that will collaborate with the creative process.
Additional information
Artistic direction Sara de CastroArtistic consultancy Teresa Lima Assistance Catarina Moreira PiresDramaturgy Ana PaisSet design and Costumes Marta CarreirasLighting design Rui MonteiroSound design Duarte MoreiraWith Ana Brandão, Carla Galvão, Crista Alfaiate, Madalena Almeida, Paula Só and Catarina Moreira Pires Special participation - spoken word choir (Viseu) Ana Cristina Pereira, Carlos Cruz, Célia Rodrigues, Fernanda Mouga, Isabel Fonseca, Joana Ferreira, Manuela Antunes, Maria Helena Azeredo, Mauro Bastos and Rafaela SantosProduction Dentro do Covil - Produção e Criação ArtísticaCo-production Teatro Viriato, Centro de Arte de Ovar and Teatro Nacional D. Maria II
© DR
© DR