Tiago Rodrigues

Sopro

Archive 2018
Theatre
1/3

Directed and written by Tiago Rodrigues
With Beatriz Brás, Cristina Vidal, Isabel Abreu, João Pedro Vaz, Sofia Dias, Vítor Roriz
Set and lighting design, Thomas Walgrave
Costumes, Aldina Jesus
Sound, Pedro Costa
Assistant director, Catarina Rôlo Salgueiro

A Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (Lisbon) production
A coproduction by Extra-pôle arts de la scène – Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur ; Festival d’Avignon ; Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris) ; La Criée, Théâtre National de Marseille ; Le Parvis Scène nationale Tarbes Pyrénées ; Terres de Paroles (Rouen) ; Théâtre Garonne – scène européenne (Toulouse) ; and Teatro Viriato (Viseu)
In association with Théâtre de Chelles ; Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris) ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from Onda
First performed on 7 July 2017 at the Festival d’Avignon
In partnership with France Culture

This year the Festival d’Automne will be hosting two shows by the Portuguese director Tiago Rodrigues, offering new points of view on theatrical inheritance. One of them, Sopro, pays homage to theatre’s hidden individuals, but who nonetheless breathe life into it. The other, By Heart, re-stages, every evening, the survival of words and ideas.

The set is a simple one: curtains, stage floor, and a few chairs. They are the instantly recognizable, primary elements of theatrical performance. Sopro (which means “breath” in Portuguese) brings us the possibility of a theatre of which nothing remains, but which the memories of a theatre prompter can breathe new life into. Using anecdotes collected from Cristina Vidal, prompter for the last 39 years at Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional D.Maria II, of which he is not just artistic director but also staff director, Tiago Rodrigues has devised a show orientated towards past and future alike. The show interweaves extracts from classical works (by Racine, Chekhov or Sophocles) with moments taken from backstage life. A homage to a rapidly-disappearing profession, Sopro also brings into the limelight theatre’s unseen individuals, whether hidden behind the actors or hidden backstage. Beyond the texts themselves, the piece is driven by a desire to represent the invisible, this breath or outpouring that can neither be caught nor controlled, not completely anyway, but which, in spiritual and physical terms, keeps us alive.
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Running time : 1h45
Performed in Portuguese, with French subtitles