Between Heaven and Earth

PORTUGAL
New creation – Theatre
“Between Heaven and Earth”

After “Carta” – a play with 32 women on stage, premiered at Teatro D. Maria II this year, marking the culmination of seven years of work since its predecessor “Ensaio Para Uma Cartografia” – Mónica Calle now returns to an intimate format and to work that focuses on text, but in a very special context. In “Entre o Céu e a Terra” (Between Heaven and Earth), Mónica Calle has as a starting point the writings of Fiama Hasse Pais Brandão and, invited by BoCA, develops a new work for a natural setting: among the beach and dunes of Costa da Caparica.

The three actresses – Mónica Calle, Mónica Garnel and Inês Vaz – made their way through a 26-day pilgrimage walk from the Sé de Lisboa to Santiago de Compostela. A journey of faith that integrates the diptych “Caminho para a Meia Noite”, which Calle will present with the two actresses, later this year, at the TBA. “Between Heaven and Earth” integrates this set of projects, as a first moment of public presentation, and with very specific characteristics: conceived for the naturist beach of Costa da Caparica (Praia 19), where the audience appears along a path amongst the dunes and woods to find them. Mónica returns to reflect on identity and female representation, investing in the marginality of her radical and poetic theatre.

For only a few spectators in four daily sessions, “Between Heaven and Earth” takes us to unnameable territory: “In the Apocalypse, regretful demons will be angels and guilty angels will be demons, physically attached, back to back” (Fiama Hasse Pais Brandão in “Eu vi o Epidauro“).

Direction, performance and lighting: Mónica Calle
Text: Based on “Poe ou o Corvo” and “Eu Vi o Epidauro” by Fiama Hasse Pais Brandão
Co-authorship and performance: Mónica Garnel and Inês Vaz
Set design: Nadir Bonaccorso
Head of production: Sérgio Azevedo
Produção executiva: Diogo Machado
Production: Casa Conveniente/Zona Não Vigiada
Co-production: BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts
Artistic Residency: Comédias do Minho
Pictures: Bruno Simão

“Between Heaven and Earth” is a commissioned project by BoCA Biennial of Contemporary Arts 2021