Teatro São João

Bernardo Santareno x 2

A Promessa + O Pecado de João Agonia
directed by João Cardoso
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ASSéDIO

Bernardo Santareno x 2

Description

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.

Credits

directed by João Cardoso

dramaturgy Regina Guimarães set design and costumes Sissa Afonso lighting design Filipe Pinheiro, Nuno Meira sound design Francisco Leal stage fight Miguel Andrade Gomes image capture and video Jorge Murteira

direction assistance
João Castro executive production Maria Inês Peixoto

cast Ângela Marques, Benedita Pereira, Daniel Silva, Inês Afonso Cardoso, João Cardoso, João Castro, Maria Inês Peixoto, Pedro Galiza, Pedro Quiroga, Rúben Pérola, Susana Madeira

co-produced by ASSéDIO, Teatro Nacional São João

playing time A Promessa | 1h40 O Pecado de João Agonia | 1h40 [45 minutes intermission between the shows ]

Ages 14 and up