In the company of thieves

The play is made up of long silences, of characters that communicate badly. For anyone dreaming of an acting future, it’s a tough call. For anyone sitting in the audience and expecting entertainment, it’s an unsettling play altogether – but for Paulo Moreira, 47, the stage manager used to breaking new ground from conventional theatre, it’s absolutely perfect.

«A Cova dos Ladrões» first came to his attention during a literary contest organised by Albufeira town council in 2008. Written by Luís Campião, a 35-year-old writer from Portimão, it was one of the 40 or so scripts that Moreira had to read in his capacity as juror.

“From a literary point of view, the text is unremarkable. It’s made up of short phrases, in everyday language. There are lots of insinuations… sentences left hanging in the air,” he explains. But the piece, by dint of its “raw” nature, struck him as perfect for the young pupils on work-study programmes as part of their course into the various techniques involved in professional productions.

Moreira explains: “On the course they’re on, the sort of interpretation they are required to take on comes from classics like Gil Vicente and Shakespeare”. In other words “they don’t get any contemporary experience”. Also “my way of creating this play was relatively relaxed. It was very much done on the basis of improvisation and asking the actors to bring in their own ideas”. At school, students “aren’t used to this”, he adds. The challenge was even greater because, in this case, there was no “linear narrative” - and there wasn’t the traditional division into “acts”/ “scenes”.

Action takes place, simultaneously, on two different planes – at home and in the street. Two universes intimately linked – both of which demonstrate the collapse of contemporary society.

In dysfunctional homes, an urban youth is growing that delights in violence. “For me, this play is a way of confronting people with these problems”, says Paulo Moreira.

But the social criticism extends to other sensitive issues when it comes to conservative mentalities. “Yes. There are people who are homophobic (anti-Gays) – so this play airs these kind of prejudices as well - and the dramatic consequences these attitudes can have”.

Moreira is referring to the play’s obvious allusion to the case of Gisberta Salce Júnior, the Brazilian transsexual who was beaten up and murdered by the group of 14 teenagers – all between the ages of 12 and 16 – in an abandoned building in Oporto, back in February 2006. “If we accept that society is becoming more and more “urban” – particularly when you look at rural desertification – we have the model of life in the towns and cities of today”.

A social reflection?

Elisabete Martins, 31, plays the archetypical depressed housewife in the play. Ignored by her children and out of work – but adulterous – husband, she’s a woman who fills her time in an empty house scanning the newspaper obituary columns.

Questioned about the play’s socio-cultural context, the ACTA actress said she found many similarities in the script to things she’d witnessed at Algarve schools. Martins was in «Bullying» - a play about violence in the school environment – performed at the beginning of the year in a number of the region’s teaching establishments.

“Yes, I see that bad behaviour has a lot to do with the dynamics of a group. To belong to a group, you have to be the “big man”. In other words, you have to take on a persona that isn’t necessarily what you are in order to fit into the group”, she said.

During her time in «Bullying» - again directed by Paulo Moreira – the actress came to see how young Algarvians tend to be intolerant of differences, and very prejudiced. “They normally like to make fun of those that are weakest, most vulnerable”.

And just as happens in «A Cova dos Ladrões», there’s another juvenile cliché alive and well on the streets – the importance of designer clothing, particularly in order to be popular.

“Kids that wear clothes from Chinese shops are constantly taunted and made fun of – as are youngsters who wear clothes from the gypsy markets. They’re left to one side. We’ve seen it ourselves. People may think these prejudices are things of the past, but they’re not. It’s scary”, she concluded.

Wilson Benedito, 19, plays Bruno – one of the characters in the play. Without any concerns about his humble origins, he also finds a lot of common ground between the life of his character, and reality.

“I see a lot of similarities because I grew up in a poor district of Quarteira, where there was a bit of everything – of the worse kind, I mean. And there are certain things in this play, like the thugs who murder the transvestite, that remind me of my childhood. I saw things very similar”, he confesses. “And I know what it’s like to have a bad atmosphere at home as I have friends who live like that”.

Future projects

With this play, ACTA is hoping – in an experimental way – to organise a support group for young creators. The initiative – which still hasn’t been formalised – will coincide with the opening of the acting company of Teatro Lethes, in Faro.

It shouldn’t take long to see the results. “I’m going to do everything to achieve my dream,” Wilson told us. “At first I thought it was just the cinema, but now I’ve learnt to love the stage, too. When he finishes this school year “I’m going to work for about a year and a half, to raise some money – then, my plan is to go to the «Central School of Speech and Drama»” – a training centre of excellence for young actors, attached to the University of London.

Marco Mártires, a film director trained in London, is producing the making-of this show. The end-idea “is to make a film with some cinematographic apparatus, which could then be commercialised. There’s still the chance of adapting the play for a film script”, concluded the director.

During their 2009 season, ACTA presented 180 plays seen by a total of 21.117 spectators. According to Luís Vicente, the company’s artistic director, the next production will mark the group’s first performance of theatre-dance. Entitled «Insustentável Leveza» it involves participation by a cast of Portuguese-German musicians, singers and dancers. The first performance will be on 2nd July at Faro’s Teatro das Figuras.