A theatre company marks 30 years by staging Saramago's warning about democracy
A Lisbon theatre company opened a new adaptation of José Saramago's Ensaio sobre a Lucidez on Thursday, using the Nobel laureate's allegory of a blank-vote rebellion to ask whether a lucid public poses a greater threat to power than an angry one.
The production by Companhia do Chapitô runs at the Chapitô venue in Lisboa until 25 October, with tickets at 16,11€, roughly the price of a cinema ticket and popcorn in the capital. Shows begin at 21:00 from Thursday to Saturday and 17:00 on Sundays.
Director José Carlos Garcia told the Lusa news agency that the company chose the text, originally published in 2004, because it was "very interesting and very current," putting "in question a democracy that is extremely fragile." The decision to dissect Saramago's novel "page by page" marked a departure from the company's usual method of developing ideas on stage before writing a script.
What the play puts on stage
The story opens with a storm at a polling station in section 14. When voters finally arrive, election officials are relieved — until the count reveals that most people have cast blank ballots. The government calls new elections. The result is 83% blank votes. What follows is an escalation of fear and state violence against a population that is not rioting, but lucid.
Garcia said the performance asks: "What if the greatest danger to a government is not a revolted people, but a lucid people?"
The staging follows the company's minimalist aesthetic. There are no elaborate sets or special costumes. The focus is on the physical work of the actor to tell the story. The cast — Jorge Cruz, Pedro da Silva, Susana Nunes and Tiago Viegas — developed the piece as a collective creation, with Leandro Araújo assisting on production and direction.
Why Saramago's 2004 novel feels urgent now
Garcia stressed that the text makes "complete sense today, given the veiled signs that we may be on that path" toward "authoritarianism and false global democracy." He added that citizens often feel "impotent before democratic institutions," lost without opportunity to "interfere politically and try to change."
Saramago's irony and humour are present in the performance, the director noted, because his characters are "real people observed in his life."
The timing is deliberate. The company is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and Garcia said it made sense to mark three decades by staging a work that speaks to a democracy that, while "sometimes fragile, is also muscled."
For audiences in Portugal, the play poses a question about what vanishes when a population decides, without coordinating or speaking to one another, to withdraw its consent. The warning is that a democratic state, faced with that silence, may reveal authoritarian impulses.
