Stage Director + Set Designer
Set Design Sketches
THEATRE | Passages – Thoughts on stage
Based on Teolinda Gersao’s romance “Passagens” | Adaptation > Ismenia Leite & Pedro Ribeiro | Stage direction & Set Design: Pedro Ribeiro | Music > J.S.Bach | First performance at the Eurico de Melo Auditorium | Cast > Alda Machado, Beatriz Ferreira, Diana Ferreira, Jose Magalhaes, Luis Magalhaes, Mafalda de Melo Pedro, Magda Mendes, Marlene Meireles, Marta Costa, Orlanda Barros, Rui Rasteiro, Susana Silva | Lighting > Megafone | New Production > Quatro Ventos Theatre Company | Sto Tirso PTG | © Images by Ricardo Meireles 2016
> Director’s note
It’s hard for us to understand the only certainty.
There are subjects that we prefer not to talk about. Maybe because we fear not knowing if that someone who dies, dies with the feeling of an accomplished task. Being afraid of loneliness makes us selfish, but, with age and life experience, we understand we shouldn’t be afraid of it… or do we just get used to it?
There are people that had full lives, and that for reasons stronger than the mind, they can’t continue to be active as the rapid society demands from them. We think they languish, revert and shrink, but in truth, they evolve. Just like Bach’s music that from a simple theme, clear and luminous, grows into variations in several voices becoming virtuous and transcendent.
Teolinda Gersao’s book “Passagens” is so well written, raw and direct, pulls us into it without asking, please. It’s impossible to not give it to our friends. This book is a work of art on its own and doesn’t need any visuals to go with it. Lives alone in its full right. But at the same time, the theme is so important and ours, that we feel it makes sense, in this precise moment, also challenge it on stage. What we present today is not a theatre play. They are mere visual thoughts on stage, build from images that the reading gave us. We hope to provoke your feelings and stir discussion.
Audience Written Feedback
“…moments of a disturbing realism from the appeals and shouts of voices without reason or face. I felt I was living the moment, with my head pounding, the confusing wrapping me. In contrast, the night scene was a beautiful moment of peace…” > F. Leite – Coimbra’s University Professor
“…the creativity used to direct this work “lock us” to the stage with a yearning to discover the next action, the next movement, the next word. The quality, delivery, and professionalism present clearly that is love to the art that remains in every single detail of the show…” > F. Silva – Production Director
“An unforgettable show, excellent staging by Pedro Ribeiro, a deep empathy and sensitivity in the adaptation of my novel, magnificent use of the music (…) an enormous collective achievement…” > T. Gersao, Writer of Passagens
“…a play that raises awareness and shows us the reality of the daily life of the elderly in institutions and of their carers. We should foster LIFE in the elderly and CARE their carers.” > A. Alves, Nurse & Master Teacher in Palliative Care
“…the meaning of things, when you can’t pick the life you lead or the living environment becomes strange… what we hear, what we say, what sometimes is just misread. More than long lectures, reflexions or treaties, the art, that so well express today’s reality, in such a short time, can really move us….” > M. Torres, Catholic Priest
“…very faithful moments that recreate, sensitively, and truthfully, being a Mother, a Woman, a Daughter… several roles that we decide to interpret in a passage that we call life and the truth we face when we leave that life’s stage… what we give, received, what we take, and leave, what we were and what we are.” > C. Ferreira, Therapist