13th and 14th December
9.30pm
Ballteatro Auditório
Teatro Meridional (Portugal)
Cloun Creolus Dei
Conception, set and lighting design Teatro Meridional
Costumes João Branco and Miguel Seabra
Costumes made by Antónia Adelaide Sequeira
Set construction Fernando Morais
Lighting technician César Fortes
Performers Cast of the Centro Cultural Português do Mindelo: António Coelho, Edson Fortes, José Evora, Paulo Miranda.
Co-production Teatro Meridional, Centro Cultural Português do Mindelo (Cape Verde)
Sponsors Cena Lusófona (Portugal) and the Associação Mindelact (Cape Verde)
Project financed by the Ministério de Cultura de Portugal
Approximate length: 1 hr (no interval)
When the company first appeared in 1992, Teatro
Meridional decided on a kind of theatre that meant immediate contact between actor and
audience, without elaborate sets or profound dramaturgical analysis. Cloun Dei, which
received its premier the following year, embodied this principal with an absolutely
contagious sense of games and criticism. In 1994, João Branco, the director of the Centro
Cultural Português in Mindelo, challenged Teatro Meridional to produce a Creole version
of the piece with Cape Verdian actors. Cloun Creolus Dei is the result of that challenge.
Premiered in Cape Verde on 19th September of this year, these revived "creole clowns
of God" now travel to PoNTI, which will host one of their first performances on
Portuguese soil.
"Starting with the essence of the
personality of the clown, this production suggests a reflection on such universal concepts
as authority, religion, and the absurd, and I sincerely hope that it gives the spectator
as much pleasure to watch as it gave us in putting it together."
Miguel Seabra