An exclusive page dedicated to the international movement of “The Theater and the Plague” by Antonin Artaud
Derived from the Covid-19 pandemic, theaters around the world are empty. John Romão conceived the project “The Theatre and the Plague” and invited the filmmaker and visual artist Salomé Lamas to produce together 5 videos, with 5 actors, in 5 theaters in Lisbon and Viseu (Portugal) who reenacted, during the mandatory confinement period (April 2020), the lecture “The theater and the Plague” by Antonin Artaud to an absent audience.
At the same time, they proposed to actors from different cities and countries to read an excerpt from the text of the conference “The theater and the Plague” in a local empty theater, where the public cannot enter. This is one of the video responses to that invitation. Geographic expansions “The Theatre and the Plague” thus becomes a text and video score, expanded to other cities, thus contaminating geography, architecture and people, like a virus, being reenacted by actors from different cities in empty theaters. We publish generous responses from actresses and actors who have been recorded in empty theaters in their cities. These videos are published without prior notice, like a virus, and arrive from theaters in cities such as Faro, Funchal, Porto, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Barcelona, Buenos Aires or Trieste, bringing with them the resonance of bodies, identities, languages, architectures, political contexts and diverse social.
Visit the page dedicated to the project, which contains several national and international videos and subscribe to the page to be updated.
Text: Antonin Artaud
Concept: John Romão
Direction: John Romão and Salomé Lamas
Production: BoCA
Co-production: EGEAC, Teatro Viriato