Viva Portugal: Two Stories From The Time Of Salazar

Two playwrights retell history through a different lens. One imagines the preoccupations of the dictator in his hours of insomnia. The other sees a real event from the point of view of its unacknowledged heroine.

In A Reputation we are in Lisbon, 1966. The ageing dictator Antonio Oliveira Salazar has governed this small European country with an iron hand for nearly 40 years. A devout and intensely private man, he contemplates his legacy of a secure and solvent nation with pride. But time passes, and there is the different matter of how history will treat him—of his reputation. And today he has a visitor, the one person he can trust. A Reputation is written by Susannah Finzi and translated into Portuguese (for the Lisbon production in 2024) by Armando Nascimento Rosa. Directed by Almiro Andrade.

Departure–The Woman Without Fear tells the real-life story of Humberto Delgado, diplomat and politician and leader of an ill-fated attempt to overthrow the Portuguese dictator Salazar. The story is told through the eyes of Arajaryr Campos, his secretary and lover. Leaving her small daughter behind in Brazil, Arajaryr was assassinated together with Delgado in 1965 in Villanueva del Fresno, Spain by the secret police of Prime Minister Salazar. Departure is written by Armando Nascimento Rosa and translated into English by Susannah Finzi. Directed by Mariana Aristizábal Pardo.