On stage, three actors are building a show. They discuss it, rehearse it and dress up to perform it. In addition to these three artists, other professionals are on stage, carrying out tasks that will contribute to the realisation of the show: a woman irons costumes, another prepares the delicacies that the actors will eat at the party they are going to throw, a man paints the wall that will serve as the backdrop to the party. When everything is ready, the cast is suddenly increased and the workers become spectators of the show, inside the show. At the end, a couple enters and begins a scene of explicit sex, diverting the audience’s attention – the audience watching in 3D, because this is happening behind the backs of the workers playing the audience in 3D. In turn, the actors play to an audience behind whom the sex scene is taking place.

The real audience is watching the show from the side: with the ‘stage’ on the left, the audience (the workers) in the centre facing left, and the couple on the bed on the right. The real audience is faced with a ‘theatre’ shown as a device (Foucault): who sees and who doesn’t; who sees whom; who controls the space and who is controlled by the space.

direction Jorge Andrade with Anabela Almeida, Bernardo Almeida, Bruno Huca, Jorge Andrade, Rita Seguro, Vítor Oliveira, Wagner Borges and, also, Emília Ferreira, Gracinda Oliveira and Tiago Rafael set design and costumes José Capela stage photography José Carlos Duarte production Manuel Poças coproduction ZDB/Negócio and O Espaço do Tempo

datasdates

January 26 to 31, 2011 ‧ Negócio / ZDB (Lisbon)