From Walter Benjamin’s essay of the same name, performed as a monologue by Fernanda Lapa, the show then develops as a wander through the various books in a personal library. After being treated as objects, the books are approached for their content. This second part of the show is organised into five cycles: ship (a bourgeois intrigue that ends with the general indisposition of the travellers and the supposed sinking of the ship); drama (wandering around love destroyed by an excerpt from Roland Barthes); the 1001 bottles (a wake that is about theatricality itself); lichens (giving up making theatre in favour of descriptive texts); and, finally, melancholy (the presentation of a still life). Each of these cycles corresponds to the attempt to install a dramaturgical proposal and, time and again, this attempt fails. Desempacotando a minha biblioteca uses ‘excess of theatre’ to make an anti-theatre manifesto.

The show was commissioned by O Estado do Mundo Forum as part of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

direction Jorge Andrade ‧ texts Walter Benjamin (translation by João Barrento) and Miguel Rocha (from texts by several authors) ‧ with Anabela Almeida, Catarina Requeijo, Cláudia Gaiolas, Fernanda Lapa, Fernando Santos aka Deborah Kristall, Rita Seguro, Simão Cayatte, Tónan Quito and Medeia ‧ set and costume design and poster José Capela ‧ light João d'Almeida ‧ video António Gonçalves ‧ musical selection Isabel Novais ‧ sound Sérgio Delgado ‧ production Eva Nunes ‧ coproduction Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (O Estado do Mundo) and Galeria Zé dos Bois ‧ financed by Ministry of Culture – Instituto das Artes ‧

datasdates

June 9 to 11, 2007 ‧ Sala Polivalente do Centro de Arte Moderna da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (included in "O Estado do Mundo" forum) (Lisbon)

June 13 to 30, 2007 ‧ Negócio (ZDB) (Lisbon)