O Rei João

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“Rei João” [King John] is one of William Shakespeare’s least performed plays. Marcos Barbosa rescues it from that silence with a staging that features dramaturgy by Jacinto Lucas Pires. Written in 1594-96 and published in the “First Folio” (1623), it is a historical play, a genre that allows the audience to have access to the experience of the past as an inspiration to consider the present. This dramatisation of John’s turbulent reign (1199-1216), with the vicissitudes of the war between France and England as its central node, raises a set of questions that assess the state of the nation, now as well as back then. What is this space we call Europe? How can we revive the values of this symbolic place? How do we redefine the people’s representativeness? What is our stance regarding the new migratory reality? How do we relate to the new concepts of identity and nation? Who will fill the void of spiritual power? What are the mechanisms of the power struggle?