Theatre always bears the marks of the times in which it was made. Our own time has been riven by a global pandemic, which has made and will continue to make a huge impact on the ways that artists work. For this reason we have decided to dedicate the first few posts of our CRSN blog takeover to examine the effects of COVID 19 on the state of theatre. In our last post we interviewed two theatre makers in Brazil with extensive experience of working with ancient plays to hear how they and their productions were coping with the corona crisis. As in Brazil, COVID has posed a serious problem for theatre makers in Portugal.
This time the Portuguese actor Sofia Lobo, from A Escola da Noite (The Night School, a theatrical group based in Coimbra), tells us all about COVID’s influence on theatre in Central Portugal.
Once upon a time – still in the pre-COVID…
Photograph by Eduardo Pinto.
What effect did COVID 19 have on the Escola da Noite activity?
When the pandemic forced us to stay at home, A Escola da Noite was beginning the preparation of two productions: Old Clown is needed and The Sex of Women as a Battlefield in the Bosnian War, texts by Romanian author Matéi Visniec.
Due to the contingencies, and without knowing for how long we would be prevented from returning to the theatre, we went ahead with what we thought we could develop in isolation. In the case of the first work, the actors were memorising the text and finding answers to the indications and the dramaturgical challenges posed by the director. In the second case, the translation of the text into Portuguese still had to be finished, so this was essentially the work done by the two actors involved, as well as the in-depth analysis of the play and its historical and political contextualisation.
These were strange times, because we are not used to working online, talking or discussing without being together in person. Time has changed and we have made as much progress as we can, but we feel the difficulties of not being able to work together in person.
What steps have you taken to continue your theatrical activity?
About a month ago we went back to work. We started by testing (the actors and the other artistic team) for the new virus and implementing all the required health rules. We soon realised that we would have to adapt something and eventually take some risks.
The two plays in question are substantially different, particularly as regards the physical contact between actors (required or suggested, since each staging has its own options). If, in the case of The sex of the women… it was possible to maintain the recommended safety distance between the two actors, at least temporarily, leaving physical contact for later rehearsals, in the case of Old Clown… this proved impossible.
Thus, the decision was taken that the three actors would risk working as before (and how much they had missed the physical contact, the look in the eyes of the partner with whom they were acting!), after redoubling the care of their hygiene and of all the objects used, keeping still all the care of social distancing outside the theatre and in each other’s houses.
Other parallel activities require less physical contact and allow other approaches: this is the case for the Theatre Reading Club which A Escola da Noite runs in partnership with the Gil Vicente Academic Theatre. Even a face-to-face reading can be done whilst maintaining physical distances. The next session of the Club is being developed online, which has the added charm of allowing the participation of former readers living now in other parts of the world (the Club is characterised by having readers from various Portuguese-speaking countries and even Spanish-speaking countries), in what is a very interesting experience.
After this crisis will we return to theatre as we knew it before?
We don’t know anything about what the future of the theatre will be. Unlike so many, we don’t see ourselves in the profusion of performances available online, much less in its free offering.
On the one hand, due to the financial constraints of a company like A Escola da Noite, the recordings of our performances have a practical function, of internal recording and help in possible remakes. We do not have the means (material and human) that we consider necessary for quality recordings that could be made available, or even marketed, although we have already done so in very particular cases.
For my part, during the months I was confined, I didn’t see a single performance online or on television. Theatre is an art that is breathed live, between actors and spectators, in unique and unrepeatable moments, in a sharing of energy and — hopefully — emotion that cannot be mediated by electronic devices.
It is true that many people are trying to reinvent this ancient art, for reasons of survival, since many people in this area (as in many others, it is true) were unable even to pay their bills, so an adaptation was needed.
We are still hopeful that something will improve and we can welcome our audience again. We know right now that we have restrictions in terms of audience capacity, we know too that we do not have the freedom that we used to have, for example, to circulate among spectators, that we cannot do anything that might make people feel unsafe.
But we want to believe that the “old-fashioned” theatre is not gone yet. We don’t intend to do it with masks, or visors, or by positioning the actors meters away from one another.
If this has to happen in the future, yes, we think that the theatre, the millenary art that has managed our life, the life of each element of this collective, will be in danger. Just like humanity itself, for sure.
Sofia Lobo, Coimbra, July 2020.
>> In the next post, we hear from the Lisbon-based scholar of the theatre, Carlos J. Pessoa.