In 2024, we’ll begin a cycle named “Re:” — a series of shows that respond to and enter into dialogue with the great Western dramatic classics, such as the Antigone, Galileo or Frei Luís de Sousa. These are medium-sized productions designed for the network of municipal theatres.
We’d like to start this cycle with Antigone, which is based on a work by playwright José Maria Vieira Mendes in response to the different versions of this classic by Sophocles.
Antigone has been written about in the dramatic tradition, from Kleist to Anouilh, from Cocteau to Júlio Dantas or António Pedro, but also philosophically (Heidegger, Steiner, Lacan, Judith Butler, etc.). The gesture of response to this show is not necessarily presented as a challenge to the past, but as a reading of it as an unanswered question or as an exchange of emails with no hope of return.
Seeking to escape the temptation of the “updating” gesture, this version chooses four of the central figures of Sophocles’ play (Antigone, Ismene, Creon and the Chorus), following them in their central narrative and in Antigone’s resistance.
Re: Antigone is also the desire to escape the classical, declaring its non-existence without proclaiming its death.

Text : José Maria Vieira Mendes
Performers: André e. Teodósio, Joana Barrios e Maria João Vaz
Set design: Tiago Alexandre
Costume design: Joana Barrios
Light design: Joana Mário
Produção: Teatro Praga
Co-Produção Teatro Nacional S. João e CCB