Homens Hediondos

Who are these “hideous men”? Ugly, repulsive, monstrous creatures? Or just common people whom we meet every day, at work, on the bus, in cafés, at home? That immense majority that perpetuates the same behaviours and power relationships, whose violence we often accept for the sake of “stability” and “our way of life”. Patrícia Portela’s latest creation, a solo piece performed by Nuno Cardoso, uses Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999), a book by the US writer David Foster Wallace, to confront us with those moments we find ourselves tolerating the system we so vehemently condemn. Putting to use “Nuno Cardoso’s metamorphic and chameleonic abilities”, the playwright sets in motion a series of monologues for male characters who turn into “increasingly hideous men”. How much of our own story will we be able to recognise in these stories?