Salgueiro Maia: Cartografia de um Monólogo by Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana, directed and interpreted by Ricardo Simões, premieres in Teatro Municipal Sá de Miranda from 2 until 5 May, with performances on Thursday at 11:00, Friday at 21:00, Saturday at 19:00 and Sunday at 16:00.
On April 30, 2014, on the 40th Anniversary of the 25th of April and integrated into the program of the Popular Celebrations of the 25th of April in Viana do Castelo, the monologue 24A74 premiered in an unconventional space, the former ammunition magazine of the Fort of Santiago da Barra. – Salgueiro Maia, written and performed by Ricardo Simões from “Crónicas da Guerra Colonial e do 25 de Abril” by Salgueiro Maia, a kind of memoir of the captain who commanded the column that played a central role on the day of the Revolution of Carnations.
A 60-minute show that was not anticipated but became part of a spontaneous conversation that was generated at the end, an unusual fact that transformed it, from the outset and from the moment of its premiere, into something more than a one-way representation: in the audience, people who were in the colonial war or who lived through the days of the dictatorship or who were born in a democracy wanted to express their opinion, ask questions, participate in an artistic manifestation that they had just experienced, perhaps with a spontaneous impulse similar to that of someone who went out to the street when he realized he was experiencing Freedom Day.
From there, and from the only 6 representations planned, the small artistic object rebelled and set off to run lands and presentation opportunities, which arose in accordance with the theme embraced and the lightness of its footing, as an actor, a technician and five books were always enough to travel through Alto Minho, Porto, Maia, Almada, Portalegre, Elvas, Beja, Cáceres, Badajoz, Seville, Zaragoza, São Paulo and return to Viana do Castelo, in more than 60 presentations made over the course of 5 years.
A journey that accumulated meetings and conversations and lived unlikely stories with anonymous protagonists from the grey Portugal of the dictatorship, like many former combatants who, although still alive, suffer in silence, in a contrition that oppresses them and that continues to be swept under the carpet of Contemporary History.
Ten years later, in the 50th Anniversary of the 25th of April, Ricardo Simões returns to face himself as an actor and author of the original monologue, delving into a decade of remarkable experiences, now causing object and memory, text and document, past and present, to become systematize in the construction of a new place of action entitled Salgueiro Maia: cartography of a monologue.
Accessibility
Stage Recognition and English Subtitles: In all sessions
Post-Show Conversation: 3 May 2024
Audio Description and Simultaneous Translation in Portuguese Sign Language: 5 May 2024
Photo: (c) João Grisantes
