Jaime C. Soares directs the final presentation of ESAP’s Theatre students

Pearls to Pigs! | Carlos Alberto Theatre, 30th and 31st July at 7:00 p.m.

Pearls to Pigs! is something we still don’t know what it’s going to be because, at the time of writing, we have no idea what we’re going to do. But what has to be has a lot of power and so here we are.

Where, we don’t know – but we jump into the void, with the innocent hope of not breaking our teeth when we hit the tarmac.

Pearls to Pigs! could be everything or just a real representation of the expression “the mountain gave birth to a mouse”. Eagerness makes us want to do everything, say things, do things, everything, everything, everything. But the attention deficit doesn’t allow us to finish anything, scroll, scroll, scroll. Where were we? Doing what, saying what? Do what? We don’t know, but we’re still fueled by the fervor and rebelliousness of adolescence and we want to take over the world, just as much as we want to take over the stage. Bite it all off!

We set out on this work with the desire to exist by doing – to experiment and contaminate, to provoke, to find purpose(s), to explore liminal zones where the beautiful and the grotesque mix, where the body, sound, image and word intersect without hierarchy. Where self-concept is destroyed, where the ego dies, where mistakes become gestures, but where everyone wants to shine.

 

We are afraid (how can we not be?!), but we are looking for a space of freedom that belongs to us – not to impose meanings (which we don’t really care about – death to the bureaucrats, by the way…!), but as a proof of life. If not today, here and now, when can we do it? Let’s not miss this opportunity.

People, individuals, bodies that together create, expose themselves, multiply, invent and reinvent themselves, build themselves, walk a path. Their path. A path that cannot exist without first being traveled (by them).

And it is with pride that we intend to show you everything.

Without knowing the destination, we hold hands, or feet, or any other part of the body and we go along together, with the absolute certainty that in the end we will be as lost as when we started. And that makes us smile.

“If God is dead, then everything is allowed”.  There is no “moral of the story” here.

So let’s end this text with a quote that we’ve heard somewhere and seems pertinent – “the destination doesn’t matter, only the journey”.

Pérolas a Porcos! (Pearls to Pigs!) is a performance project by the final-year students of the Theatre Degree at the Escola Superior Artística do Porto, directed by director, actor and educator Jaime C. Soares, artistic director of NAPALM (Companhia de Teatro Dança em Conjunto ou Alternadamente).

Created and directed by: Jaime C. Soares

Based on texts by Raúl Brandão, Javier Tomeo, Harold Pinter and Jaime C. Soares Soares

Staging Assistance: Leonor Leite

Production Assistance: Cauí Ferreira and João Celeste

Light Design: Júlio Filipe Cardoso

Costume and Set Design Assistance: Maria Lourenço, Cristina Narayan and Luísa Feio

Sound Assistance: Inês Neves

Acting: Bruna Pires, Cauí Ferreira, João Celeste, Leonor Leite, Sara Frederico

Special participation: Beatriz Santos, Hélia Viterbo and Lara Ferreira

Live Filming: Clara Gondin, Renato Leal and Vinicius Castro (Cinecounty)

Stage Photography: Hilário Barrias

Production: Escola Superior Artística do Porto

Support: NAPALM (Companhia de Teatro Dança em Conjunto ou Alternadamente)

Acknowledgments: Teatro Nacional de São João

Age rating: Over 16 years old