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‘Not to die. And above all not to die.’
Sopro, written and directed by Tiago Rodrigues, was a performance from Lisbon, Portugal which took place at the Dublin Theatre Festival, O’Reilly Theatre. It portrayed the deconstruction of theatre on stage: the audience members could see fragmented pieces of different dramas from Chekhov, Molière, etc., and pieces of real life drama from the actors onstage. Rodrigues is also the artistic director (2014-2020) at Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional D. Maria II where Cristina Vidal has been a prompter for the past 40 years—who is still active. Sopro whisperingly gave the prompter a projected voice on a stage left in nothing but ruins. (Sopro means breath, whisper, and to blow in Portuguese, v. soprar).
The subtle breeze of the theatre becomes sound, becomes whisper. Vidal gives life to the performers by whispering behind them, controlling their words, movement, playing God, holding the prompt book—the voice carries the future in a quite prophetic manner, what is being told has already been written, there is no escape: the words are trapped in pages and pages and will be read. The whispers are transmuted to the actors, who then share the mystified messages to the whole auditorium. The actors become mediums—only they can understand what the prompt ghostly whispers. The actors only move when the prompt whisper to them—physical engagement is noticeable and precise. The movement, whispers and prosody of the words become quite rhythmic allowing the audience to breathe with the performance, to be present with the performers. The words, eventually, turn into music when all the actors sing together for a minute or two—this was a moment in itself, a connection amongst the characters which allowed them to become more human.
The metatheatre of Rodrigues investigated the sentiments of a theatre in ruins, where artists choose to deal with the difficulties of surviving with public money. Rodrigues also wrote about the necessity of preserving public places, public theatres where people still look for things that are still missing. Perhaps, to fulfill an inexplicable void, where people are present in doubt, expecting the unknown future, facing death, but remaining in life. They choose to face it – ‘And above all not to die.’
