Tiago Rodrigues. Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists

Text, direction Tiago Rodrigues
Artistic collaboration Magda Bizarro
Stage design F. Ribeiro
Light Nuno Meira
Costumes José António Tenente
Sound design, original music Pedro Costa
Choirmaster, vocal arrangements João Henriques
Choreography Sofia Dias, Vítor Roriz

Cast Isabel Abreu, Romeu Costa, António Fonseca, Beatriz Maia, Marco Mendonça, António Parra, Carolina Passos Sousa, João Vicente

Voices-over Cláudio de Castro, Nadezhda Bocharova, Paula Mora, Pedro Moldão
Weapon coordinator David Chan Cordeiro
Translation Daniel Hahn (English), Agnė Pulokaitė (Lithuanian)

Duration 150 min
Premiere 2020 

Production Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (Lisboa)
Executive production Festival d’Avignon
Co-production Wiener Festwochen, Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione (Modena), Théâtre de la Cité - CDN Toulouse Occitanie & Théâtre Garonne Scène européenne Toulouse, Festival d’Automne à Paris & Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Teatro di Roma – Teatro Nazionale, Comédie de Caen, Théâtre de Liège, Maison de la Culture d'Amiens, BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen), Le Trident – Scène nationale de Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Teatre Lliure (Barcelona), Centro Cultural Vila Flor (Guimarães), O Espaço do Tempo (Montemor-o-Novo). Support Almeida Garrett Wines, Cano Amarelo, Culturgest

Thanks to Mariana Gomes, Rui Pina Coelho, Margarida Bak Gordon, Rita Mendes and the team of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II. We also thank Sara Barros Leitão, Pedro Gil and Rui M. Silva who, even though they are no longer on stage with us, will always remain Catarina. 

Music Hania Rani (Biesy et Now, Run), Joanna Brouk (The Nymph Rising, Calling the Sailor), Laurel Halo (Rome Theme III et Hyphae) et Rosalía (De Plata)

Performance
It is a beautiful evening. The family is gathered in their country house somewhere in the Portuguese south. The wild boar is roasting. Asparagus with eggs is ready. Yet, something seems not right. Why everyone—both men and women—is called Catarina? And why is everyone wearing floral aprons and skirts? Everything is part of an absurd ritual.

It is because this family kills fascists; a tradition followed by all its members for over 70 years. It began in 1954, in retaliation for the murder of 26-year-old revolted peasant woman Catarina Eufémia, an “Antigone” of her times—a real person and an icon of the resistance against the dictatorship that ruled Portugal from 1933 to 1974. As of then, one fascist and woman killer must die every year on the altar of revenge for her unjust loss.

We are now in 2028, and while a totalitarian regime has usurped power, Catarina, the family's youngest member, is about to kill her first fascist, who has been kidnapped precisely for this purpose. “It is a day of celebration, a day of beauty and death,” as her family says. However, young Catarina refuses to proceed with killing the hostage. Then a family feud breaks out. Ghosts of the past arise and request revenge. Dark prophecies demand the sacrifice to be fulfilled. Unresolved questions emerge. What is fascism? Is there room for violence in the fight for a better world? Are we allowed to violate the laws of democracy in our effort to defend it?

The dramaturgy of “Catarina and the beauty of killing fascists” emerged collaboratively, through the collective study of texts on totalitarianism, violence, and the rise of the far right in contemporary Europe. The team turned to works by political philosophers Hanna Arendt and Slavoj Žižek, as well as by authors who have spoken more broadly about violence, ranging from Sophocles to Albert Camus and Edward Bond. They also focused on analyses of speeches delivered by populist leaders, such as Trump, Orban and Bolsonaro. Rehearsals were abruptly halted with the outbreak of the pandemic, and the show finally premiered in Centro Cultural Vila Flor in Portugal in September 2020, before being stopped again and finally presented at Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in April 2021.

“Catarina and the beauty of killing fascists” has won a number of prizes, including Best Foreign Performance at the Ubu Awards 2023 in Italy, the equivalent prize from the French Critics Association (2023), while it was also nominated for Best International Performance at the Premis de la Crítica in Catalonia.

Theatre as a Weapon
“One of this project’s starting points was to question ourselves about theatre’s ability to intervene in the reality of the present and I wished to recall our powerlessness. First of all, we have to confront our powerlessness as citizens. Then we have to confront ourselves with our powerlessness as artists. By thinking of theatre as an anteroom to action (whether political, social, criminal, etc.), we are affirming the transformative power of art and simultaneously underscoring the basic difference between theatre and the action. The freedom of imagination that we can enjoy on stage allows us to avoid social and legal norms. We can provoke, challenge and question existing laws and morals. Nevertheless, it’s this very freedom to imagine that creates obstacles to our intervening more directly with society. (…)

Perhaps we won’t have to make as great an effort as we thought necessary in order to break not only the fourth wall but also the other three that separate us from what is really happening outside. Instead of basing ourselves on explicit references to the present and reality, we believe that the best way to speak about what’s happening now is to engage with the fiction of the near future. Not just as a reaction against the ack of poetry in our current collective daily routines, but also because the basic issues in this show have suddenly moved to the future.”

Tiago Rodrigues

The use of words
“I used the word 'fascists' in a scientifically incorrect manner because other words that would apply to extreme far-wing movements that are inspired by the fascists are now normalized. When you say extreme right wing, radical nationalist, sovereigntist, nationalistic, when you say patriotic, even, unfortunately. When you say a certain number of words, especially populist or extreme right wing, actually this became part of the democratic spectrum, not only by the vote of the people but by its normalization in the public speech, in the media, in politics, in the cafés.

'Fascists' are still annoying to anyone who is called a fascist. So I demand the right to say fascist because the other words that should hurt, like extreme right-wing or populist, don’t hurt anymore. So I think when in a demonstration, for instance, in Sao Paolo or Rio, I heard Bolsonaro be called a fascist, I can understand that the historian or the social scientist, the sociology would say that’s not correct, but as a citizen, I find it very correct.”

Press
”This Teatro D. MariaII production achieves such a level of excellence that, if some people called it a manifesto, it would be one that sums up the importance of theatre in today’s society. Can theatre release us from our apathy? Can theatre get us thinking about creating a better model of society? We could even argue that these are not ulterior questions but are, in fact, the nature of the very idea behind this work. Tiago Rodrigues, who wrote and directed the play, unleashes critical thinking that only too often we have seen reduced to fake neutrality when confronted with current social contexts and spurs us to react. ”

Marta Moreira, intro.pt

”Catarina... by Tiago Rodrigues has all the best characteristics of tragedy. It inspires personal sacrifice, it’s dialectic and not didactic, discusses what destiny is best for the collective and is indifferent about what becomes of its heroes. And it’s a timely reminder of the importance of rituals in forming and maintaining human communities.”

Rui Pina Coelho, Sinais em linha