Mónica Calle & Casa Conveniente

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The production fails after the first few minutes. And then again, and again and again – almost to the end. Twelve women attempt to dance to the recording of an orchestral rehearsal of Maurice Ravel’s «Boléro». Its conductor, Sergiu Celibedache, continues interrupting his orchestra and has the musicians start again. Without classical training, without clothes and without the necessary prerequisites, the performers on stage keep starting over and over again, until we almost forget what the actual objective of this all is. Yet the women achieve phenomenal feats. Their striving for perfection turns into an emancipatory resistance against patriarch-capitalistic meritocracy, maybe even into some kind of victory.

Director Mónica Calle founded her company Casa Conviente in the red light district of Lisbon over 20 years ago. Together with this community, she has radically scrutinised the fringes of Portuguese society. «Ensaio para uma cartografia» started out in 2014 as a local research project and has since passed many stages before becoming the company’s first work for the national theatre of Portugal. The radical piece makes great demands on the performers as well as the audience and creates a moment of rare theatrical power. An evening which refuses a lot yet gives everything. (mvh)