A double session, a singular playwright. Using the same cast and within the same stage set, director João Cardoso brings into dialogue two shows that were recently premiered on the TNSJ’s stages. At the heart of this project, we find Bernardo Santareno (1920-1980), a crucial author of Portuguese 20th-century theatre, an “obsessive and dark talent”, in the words of Jorge de Sena. A Promessa [The Promise] (1957) and O Pecado de João Agonia [The Sin of João Agonia] (1961) are part of a group of plays in which Santareno asserted his opposition to a repressive system, by exploring subjects of a sexual (homosexuality) and religious (guilt, sacrifice) nature. These calls to “disobey dogmas” occur within the confines of closely-knit communities: “a fishing village on the Portuguese coast” (A Promessa) and a “cragged, primitive hamlet” (O Pecado). Places under the light of an “evil moon”, from which we view Salazar’s retrograde Portugal, a country that doggedly lingers among us.