Contemporary Portuguese Theatre: experimentalism, politics and utopia [working title]

coordination Rui Pina Coelho

The chosen heirs to the experimental projects and the expression of creative freedom that Portuguese theatre successfully achieved during the 1980s and 1990s, the generation of Portuguese theatre makers born for the most part in the 1970s, has been enjoying increasing visibility and importance on both the national and international level. Transcending their forerunners’ inability to achieve any effective presence on the international circuits, many of these creators have become quite regular fixtures at many of the most important theatre festivals around the world. Without undermining the singularity of the artistic work carried out by any of the theatrical creators, companies, or structures for theatrical production in question, what has come to the fore are thematic axes, shared concerns, various modes for approaching great formal and aesthetic proximity, and the continuous movement of artists between different projects. The authors of this book, Portuguese scholars and critics, belong to the same generation of artists studied here. As spectators they were shaped mainly by this generation’s theatre, and they are often each other’s artistic partners.

Artists and companies studied
As Boas Raparigas... | Bruno Bravo | Cão Solteiro | Circolando | Colectivo 84 | Comédias do Minho | Gonçalo Amorim | Gonçalo Waddington | João Garcia Miguel | Karnart | Mala Voadora | Martim Pedroso & Nova Companhia | Miguel Castro Caldas | Miguel Loureiro | Miguel Moreira | Nuno Cardoso | Palmilha Dentada | Patrícia Portela | Projecto Teatral | Rui Catalão | Teatro do Eléctrico | Teatro do Vestido | Teatro Praga | Tiago Rodrigues | Tónan Quito | Visões Úteis