“UMA DANÇA DAS FLORESTAS” (A DANCE OF THE FORESTS)
by Wole Soyinka
Directed by Zia Soares
14th to 23rd January | Tuesday to Saturday, 20:00; Sunday, 5:30 pm
São Luiz Municipal Theater | Luis Miguel Cintra Room
€12 to €15 (with discounts) | get tickets
Session with Interpretation in Portuguese Sign Language and Audio Description
January 23, Sunday 5:30 pm
«I know who the Dead Ones are. They are the guests of the Human Community who are neighbors to us of the Forest. It is their Feast, the Gathering of the Tribes. Their councilors met and said, Our forefathers must be present at this Feast. They asked us for ancestors, for illustrious ancestors, and I said to FOREST HEAD, let me answer their request. And I felt two spirits of the restless dead…»
A Dance of the Forests, Wole Soyinka
The Dead and the Dead, brought back to life by the God Aroni, arrive at the Gathering of the Tribes. They rise from their earthen graves in the middle of the forest and ask those passing by to “accept their case”. The Dead and the Dead, “two restless dead spirits” who in life were husband and wife, bring with them the wounds of another time, confront their executioners in a strange ritual of death, atonement, disobedience and rebirth. The four mortals that The Dead and The Dead confront carry their past despite not maintaining the identity of their previous life – Rola, a prostitute who in her previous life was Madam Turtle; Adenebi, a court historian of Emperor Mata Kharibu, is now a council speaker; Agboreko, was a soothsayer of Emperor Mata Kharibu and in this life he maintains the same activity; and Demoke, sculptor, who was once a court poet. What precedes them is also what determines their present, they are the before and what follows, the human and the forest. All are simultaneously what they are and what they were – the dead and the living alike. As a botanical metaphor that devours the meaning of the world, the further one advances in action, the further one goes back in time.
STEERING, DRAMATURGY AND OTHER TEXTS Zia Soares
TEXT Wole Soyinka
TRANSLATION Rita Correia
INTERPRETATION Ana Valentim, Cláudio da Silva, Gio Lourenço, Júlio Mesquita, Matamba Joaquim, Miguel Sermão, Rita Cruz, Vera Cruz
SETTING, COSTUMES AND GRAPHIC DESIGN Neusa Trovoada
Xullaji MUSIC
LIGHT DESIGN Jorge Ribeiro
ASSISTANCE TO THE MOVEMENT STAGEMENT Vânia Doutel Vaz
CONSULTANCY Rogério de Carvalho
VIDEO (TEASERS) António Castelo
EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION Aoaní d’Alva
SUPPORTS Batoto Yetu, Casa da Dança, Misericórdia Parish Council, Khapaz, Gaivotas Boavista Cultural Center and KMT – Associação Moreira Team.
CO-PRODUCTION Teatro GRIOT and São Luiz Teatro Municipal /// O Teatro GRIOT é uma estrutura financiada pela República Portuguesa – Ministério da Cultura, Direção-Geral das Artes e Câmara Municipal de Lisboa. /// Zia Soares is an artist supported by apap – Feminist Futures, a project co-financed by Programa Europa Criativa of the European Union
January 18, 2022
