Trees let go of their fairest branches /2020
Theatrical play with ties to the languages of cinema and sculpture, born from the research on what we would later call distance. María, a young emigrant, leaves her country for the metropolis. Arriving at the pier, where a man and a woman expected her, she decides to escape. After finding the girl two months later, the couple tries a different approach, offering her a house and a job in a made-up factory.
A project by outro premiered in September 2019 at Arquipélago — Contemporary Arts Center (São Miguel Island), and in November 2020 at the Temps d’Images Lisbon Festival.
1h20 M14
created by João Leão, Patrícia Moreira, Sílvio Vieira and Sofia Fialho
text Sílvio Vieira
cast Ana Cris / Patrícia Moreira, João Leão, Sílvio Vieira and Sofia Fialho
sound design Diogo Quintela
video João Leão
light design João Leão and Manuel Abrantes
stage design advisory Ângela Rocha
production assistance Laura Gama Martins
lighting operation Janaina Gonçalves
production outro
co-producers Arquipélago — Contemporary Arts Center, Temps d’Images Lisbon Festival
partners GDA Foundation, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, PARES (Walk & Talk), Polo Cultural Gaivotas | Boavista, O Espaço do Tempo, DeVIR-CAPa, Causas Comuns, Teatro do Eléctrico, ESTC-IPL, Companhia Olga Roriz, OPTEC, Autovidreira, Vatel
accolades Text selected by the Portuguese Committee of the European Network for Drama in Translation EURODRAM 2020
acknowledgements Blue, Bruno Bravo, Catarina Rabaça, Cátia Terrinca, Ceci Graterol, Filomena Silva, Francisco Melo Bento, José Garcia, José Saramago, Luca Aprea, Lúcia Marques, Margarida Leão, Maria Duarte, Marta Raimundo, Miguel Ponte, Nélia Martins, Ricardo Botelho, Rita Conduto and Ruy Malheiro
FROM THE BEGINNING
The idea for this play arose after the first two years of outro. During that period, the group gathered around literature on art, philosophy, biology, and social sciences, while at the same time producing its own materials. These resources, some of which are on this website, were compiled into three notebooks — Nature, Connection, and Map. From there we converged on the idea of distance and the story of a young woman who left her country: María.
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The similarities and differences between man and animal, the connection between anthropomorphism and identity, and the dilemma of conscience all come from the same interrogation: what distance separates man from Nature?i) The literal translation of this play’s title reads “trees let their most beautiful branches die”. This sentence expresses the old antithesis between useful and useless: from the observation of trees in the Azorean forest — whose lower branches die from being in the shade and, hence, not being able to perform photosynthesis — we raise the problem of the place of art and madness in a living-being-society organized around what's functional and useful.
ii) Human beings insist on seeing themselves in everything they see: drawing faces in stones, discovering human psychology and behavior in pets, gender-naming objects, and overusing personification as a stylistic feature.
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Implicit in the narrative of this play, we found four measures in the abyss between I and other:Distance from self — empathy and rejection
Exact distance — intuition
Uncertain distance — fear and wonder
Parallel distance — dream -
These four measures of distance exist from one point to another, with more or less clarity. With a clear axis on María, we observe the connection she establishes with the world of the play, cold and austere, intertwining feelings of fear, empathy, violence, and love.
Representations of distance, Sílvio Vieira, 2017
Distance from self, Sílvio Vieira, 2017
Diagram of the Field of Vision, Herbert Bayer, 1930
Monkey in mirror, in "Hours of Joanna the Mad", XVI
First draft for sculpture "Corpus separatum", Marta Raimundo, 2018
Second draft for sculpture "Corpus separatum", Marta Raimundo, 2018
Third draft for sculpture "Corpus separatum", Marta Raimundo, 2018
Fourth draft for sculpture "Corpus separatum", Marta Raimundo, 2018