Portrayed on stage in a new comedy production are the artists Picasso, Salvador Dali and Max Ernst.
Eccentric in the extreme with an appetite for women and esoteric gatherings, the play is based on fact. It recreates some eerie events and gives insight into the artists’ paintings which are projected onto a screen at key moments in the show.
Appearing alongside them is Portugal’s most important modern poet Fernando Pessoa. Like the artists, he too dabbled in spiritualism, séances, astrology and automatic writing. A key member of a Portuguese literary group, he promoted surrealist writing in the 1930s. Speaking perfect French and English, he worked as a translator and was closely associated with the European art scene.
The play is based in Paris and Lisbon where the art collector Peggy Guggenheim is on route to the USA to escape the war. She is approached in a café by the English surrealist writer and artist Leonora Carrington. Gala Dali arrives wearing her famous shoe hat followed by the cabaret star and French Resistance fighter Josephine Baker.
All of them, according to history, were in Lisbon during 1940 and had many differences to air. The scene is set for an unconventional showdown where the names of past lovers are bandied about. No lady is too grand or arty to swing at a rival with her handbag!
The play is written entirely in rhyme and there is a cast of 12. Profits in aid of São Brás Bombeiros.
Written and directed by Carolyn Kain, ‘Cinderella and the Surrealists’ will be performed at The Old Gallery in São Brás Museum.
Friday December 9, at 7.30pm
Saturday and Sunday, December 10 and 11, at 5.30pm
Tickets cost €10 for Amigos, €12 for general public
Call 966 329 073 to reserve a seat
