ORIGENS/ORIGINS 200-7 Deadly Sins
200-7 Deadly Sins was our third consecutive year producing ORIGENS/ORIGINS Staged Readings Festival. StoneCrabs Theatre celebrated an exciting exchange and unification of dramaturgy of the Portuguese diaspora, encompassing works from Brazil, Portugal and Angola.
The festival explored a psychological interpretation of the seven deadly sins within the dramaturgy of writers of the Portuguese Diaspora. The Programme presented the following plays:
- Punching the Point of the Knife by Brazilian playwright Augusto Boal, directed by Gael Le Cornec.
Augusto Boal, who was once labelled a cultural activist by the Brazilian military, was arrested in 1971 and tortured. He was eventually exiled to Argentina where he wrote Punching at the Point of the Knife, looking at exile and the search for the meaning of home.
- Tunnel of The Rats by Portuguese playwright Armando Rosa. directed by Jorge Balça.
A dark contemporary fable, the characters play a game of cat-and-mouse with each other; but it is only when they are all trapped in a mine-shaft and threatened by starving rats we see different versions of each character’s life and identities revealed. Armando Rosa is the most successful new Portuguese playwright to emerge in the 21st century. This performance was followed by a post-show discussion between Armando Rosa and Professor Susan Rowland.
- The Container by Angolan playwright Mena Abrantes, directed by Natascha Metherell.
Based on a newspaper article published in Portugal when 3 men who claimed to be Peter Biko, George Washington and John Mweyin were discovered fleeing their country in the container of a ship in search of their dreams in Europe, the play looks at hope, fears and the boundaries created by mankind.
- Dorotéia by Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues, directed by Kwong Loke.
Known for his irreverent repertoire of controversial plays, Rodrigues’ ‘irresponsible farce’ will close the Festival. Written in 1947 Dorotéia is considered his first surreal farce – Ugliness is desirous, sex is sin, beauty is curse, sickness is purification. Dorotéia seeks redemption for her sin through nausea while her widowed cousins do not sleep for fear of dreams overriding the conscious repression of fantasy and sexual lust. A thundering success of his second play Vestido de Noiva (Wedding Dress) made Rodrigues the first modern playwright in Brazil. After that there was no end to his genius for writing for the theatre until his death in 1980.
Doroteia received an adapted production treatment as “After Doroteia” at Oval House in 2009, directed by Franko Figueiredo.
ORIGENS/ORIGINS 200-7 Deadly Sins was supported by the Arts Council of England and produced in partnership with Canning House and Embassy Of Brazil in London