We asked Miguel Maia, artistic director of Malacate and author and director of "Caixa de Questions" to describe us these last months of creation and preparation of this show, which brought together inhabitants of Mina, professional actors and a huge artistic team . Here's what he wrote to us:
"We speak face to face, without fear. We wait for the other to be silent so that we can say that we know. But the other is never silent, we would need time to dress in infinity so that, on a long night of dancing, listen to the whisper of this love filled with depths, with shadow and light, with drops of sweat and tears, so that in the end I can say: this thing of being a stone with a human heart is more complicated than it seems.
If theater is action, what is a poem? Putting words together, talking... does it make any sense when there's so much to do? Is it worth going through a scene, from one side to the other, with your head full of dreams and nightmares and hoping that in the end everything makes sense? That in the end, those who watched the scene attentively, get up from this strange place in which we suspended past, present and future and leave it without looking back? It seems that more and more people in this place have the same questions. But he still doesn't miss rehearsals…
These were intense months that now end with a celebration that brought together dozens of people on and off stage. Tears and laughter mingled on this pier, which was once a safe harbor for wealth that came underfoot and which closed 60 years ago, leaving everything and everyone in suspense.
But the snorting of other types of machines was heard again these days and there were even those who commented that since '66 one had not seen such agitation on those sides occupied by walls in continuous fall. Well, we are finishing this MALACATE in the most bittersweet way possible: with strong nostalgia for what we are experiencing right now and with a desire to build more.
See you soon?"
Mina de São Domingos, June 14, 2023
Miguel Maia
Photo credits - Sónia Godinho