al mada nada

Summer is here, and there is a festival in the village. Paper balloons are lit, masts are decorated with flags, there are bonfires and torches on the wharf. There is a war far away, soldiers in barracks “turn right, four by four”, lovers’ quarrels and a seedy circus show. Everything gains sound, colour and movement, everything starts spinning like a fairground carousel in this vibrant creation by Ricardo Pais. Largely based on Saltimbancos – a unique, obsessively physical and sexual text by Almada Negreiros –, al mada nada has often been described as the solar and impetuous reverse of Turismo Infinito. While the show created from texts by Fernando Pessoa displayed a plural mind, al mada nada celebrates the body and sensuality, things that Almada, the other “poet of Orpheu and more”, enjoyed passionately. Premiered in 2014, the great Portuguese kaleidoscope makes a thunderous return to the Teatro São João stage. “Hooray for lightning! Hooray for thunder! Hooray for wind! Hooray for rain!” Hooray for al mada nada!