THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING AGUSTINA BESSA-LUÍS
Agustina Bessa-Luís (1922-2019) was a Portuguese novelist and short-story writer whose fiction diverged from the predominantly neorealistic regionalism of mid-20th-century Portuguese literature to incorporate elements of surrealism.
In Bessa-Luís’s fiction, notions of time and space become vague, and planes of reality flow together, dimming the sense of a logical order of events. Her prose has been called “metaphysical” and “ultra-psychological,” and the influence of Marcel Proust and Franz Kafka may be distinguished in the fictional worlds she created.
Going from Simone de Beauvoir to Agustina Bessa-Luís was not an innocent or random choice; both authors wrote about the feminine condition in the context of severely patriarchal societies. They wrote timeless stories in which they addressed (in very different ways) the pragmatic search for who we are.
Taking Bessa-Luís’ oeuvre as a starting point for this performance - through the depictions the author made of characters in permanent conflict with the society they live in -, Bonneville went searching for answers to the difficult question of what it could mean to be Portuguese.
Credits
Director, Writer and Performer: M̶i̶g̶u̶e̶l̶ Bonneville. Co-Writers and Performers: Diogo Bento and Tiago Vieira. Voice: Paula Sá Nogueira. Original Soundtrack: Yaw Tembe. Sound Design: BlackBambi. Costume Design: Mariana Sá Nogueira. Light Design: Nuno Patinho. Drawings: Bárbara Assis Pacheco. Dramaturgic Support: Lourença Baldaque, João Manuel de Oliveira, Maria Paula Meneses, Isabela Figueiredo. Photography and Video: Joana Linda. Press: Margarida Oliveira. Executive Production: Cristina Correia. Co-Production: Festival Temps d’Images. Artistic Residencies: Alkantara, Latoaria, Rua das Gaivotas 6 and Teatro do Vestido. Informal Presentation: Centro Cultural do Cartaxo. This project was financed by Direcção Geral das Artes.
Broadcasting
15th of October 2022, RTP2 - free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio Televisão Portuguesa, Portugal
Premiere
8th - 10th of January 2016, Teatro Taborda, Festival Temps d'Images, Lisbon, Portugal
