Mindelo, 6th November 2017

I'm writing to you, already on stage, with the lights off, Maria Helena.
Trying to guess whether or not it's possible to find you in the dark.
Here, where I wait for you, the shadow guards my eyes.
I enlighten myself as I will do with you, woman to woman.
May you bring me the light.
On equal terms.
This letter, written on stage, precipitated a correspondence that is now ground.
I remember Pirandello - as his characters seek him out, so I, the actress, am following in the footsteps of Maria Helena - rescuing her from history (for history, who knows).

Cátia Terrinca

If you know how to paint your land,
Look, you earth, if you have to paint your sky
like the sun that turns white,
like the sun that saves black people,
even though the Virgin is white,
píntame angelitos negros.

LETTERS is the ephemeral memory of a man and a woman in their correspondence.

In a simultaneous process of creation and memory, it starts with the letters that Amílcar Cabral and Maria Helena, his first wife, exchanged - inevitably fragmenting the space, the voice and the handwriting.

The collection on which this creation is based refers to the letters Maria Helena wrote to Amílcar Cabral between 1946 and 1960. Many were lost while travelling, fleeing, fighting and being forgotten. What emerges on stage are the gaps, the spaces between blur and sharpness, the movement of memory towards the body.

She wrote to him: "I missed a letter. I miss you, the pen has run out of ink and this is all there is."

Note: This work process underwent an artistic residency in the city of Mindelo, Cape Verde, with the support of the Portuguese Cultural Centre and ALAIM, at the invitation of the Mindelact Festival, between October and November 2017. The first version was premiered on 6 November 2017 at the Mindelact Festival, in co-production with the Theatre Group of the Portuguese Cultural Centre - Mindelo Hub.

Artistic Direction - João Branco and Cátia Terrinca
Creation - Press conference
Dramaturgy - Celeste Fortes and Sofia Berberan
Set and costume designs - Ricardo Guerreiro Campos
Costume making - Joana Leal
Interpretation - Cátia Terrinca
Sound design - Mariana Bragada / Meta
Video - Ângelo Lopes
Light design - João P. Nunes
Photography - Sofia Berberan
Production - Márcia Conceição and Sofia Berberan
Co-production - GTCCPM - Theatre Group of the Portuguese Cultural Centre of Mindelo

#12 UMCOLETIVO PROJECT

Texts - Cátia Terrinca and Celeste Fortes
Design - Utopias Workshop
Photographs - Sofia Berberan

DGArtes, Oficina de Utopias, Rádio Elvas and Raiz di Polon