There’s still a great deal of material left in the play O Susto é Um Mundo (2021) to explore and develop more deeply. The ladder emerged in O Susto because Vera Mantero, João Bento and Henrique Furtado wanted to touch, symbolically speaking, the feet of the Gods. But it happens that the ladder appears only briefly at the start
of the piece and is then quite literally put in a corner. So, this (great) aspiration never actually materialised. They tried here to see what it would be like to touch the feet of the Gods. And to hold onto the sky, which is falling as we all know. A sextet consisting of 3 ladders and 3 naked bodies offer another cosmological place where the idea of an upturned floor is convey. Mythological and intermediary figures emerge between what’s above and what’s below and conduct actions-tasks-dances-sounds in a sequence of odd relations between opposites.
co-creation and interpretation
Vera Mantero, Henrique Furtado Vieira, João Bento
sound
João Bento
sound technical operation
Rodrigo Martins
light design
co-creation of Hugo Coelho e Miguel Cruz
production
O Rumo do Fumo
co-production
Teatro Miguel Franco
executive production and difusion
João Albano / O Rumo do Fumo
artistic residencies
Centro Musibéria, DeVIR CAPa, La Caldera - Barcelona
Rumo do Fumo is a structure financed by the República Portuguesa | Cultura/ Direcção Geral das Artes and Câmara Municipal de Lisboa
duration 55 min.
+ 12
Note: the show contains nudity.
Vera Mantero (Lisbon, 1966) studied classical dance with Ana Mascolo and danced in Gulbenkian Ballet between 1984 and 1989. She played a leading role in Nova Dança Portuguesa and began her career as a choreographer in 1987. She has shown her throughout Europe, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Canada, South Korea, US and Singapore. Her artistic work has been widely recognised. She was awarded the Almada Prize by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture (2002) and the Gulbenkian Art Prize as creator and performer (2009).
Henrique Furtado Vieira studied energy and environment engineering. He is now a dancer, performer and choreographer and lives in Lisbon. He carried out his artistic training in various French institutions (INSA in Lyon, Extensions – CDC de Toulouse, Prototype II and Dialogues III – Abadia de Royaumont). His main practices are creating choreographic pieces and collaborating as a performer with artists that include Bleuène Madelaine, Eric Languet, Aurélien Richard, Céline Cartillier, Tino Sehgal, Salomé Lamas, André Uerba, Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, Ana Renata Polónia and Vera Mantero.
João Bento has a BA degree in Visual Arts from ESAD. He has been composing sound for performances, dance, experimental films, theatre and live acts since 2004. He works with analog instruments and sound objects used within a multidisciplinary context. He has worked on making and researching music improvisation techniques with the musician Greg Greeg Moore, Theremin with Pamilia Kurstin, sound for film with Vasco Pimentel and composition in real time techniques with João Fiadeiro at RE.AL. His own work well as collaborative work projects have been presented in Portugal, Spain, France, Mexico, Belgium, Germany, India and Bangladesh.