Wiener Festwochen: Tiago Rodrigues / Teatro Macional D. Maria II - Catarina e a beleza de matar fascistas

Honouring the memory of Catarina Eufémia, a peasant worker murdered by Portugal’s Salazar dictatorship in 1954, a family engages in its yearly ritual of killing a fascist. At least, that’s what it’s planning to do. However, the family’s united front is beginning to crumble. While the kidnapped individual awaits his execution, the debates rage. How far does the freedom of opinion go? How much contradiction can a system tolerate? And does saving democracy justify a murder? With his provocative play Catarina and the beauty of killing fascists, Tiago Rodrigues, the artistic director of the National Theatre in Lisbon, reflects the global resurgence of right-wing populism. At the 2019 Wiener Festwochen, Rodrigues put on Sopro, a piece that celebrated the potential of language and memory; this time he sets his sights on the act itself. Rodrigues’s latest work is theatre on a grand scale: a psychological thriller unfolds, its construction meticulous in both content and aesthetics. Will the anti­fascist family be able to agree on a unified position? Will the action become an act?