Tebas Land

A playwright interviews a parricide on a basketball court inside a prison. The playwright invites the parricide to play himself in a theatre piece. When the prison authorities prevent the parricide from telling his own story on stage, the playwright brings in an actor to play him.

The staging has the peculiarity that both the character of the parricide and the actor who plays him are performed by the same actor. At the same time, the character of the playwright tells the story on two narrative levels: the prison where the fiction unfolds and the theatre where the fiction is staged, using this device to bring the myth of Oedipus into contemporary theatre.

In this play of mirrors and multiple narrative layers, Tebas Land takes the figure of the Western myth of Oedipus to question the boundary between reality and fiction. The play offers a poetic debate to highlight one of the central themes of contemporary theatre: the conflict between Presentation and Representation.

Tebas Land is the first work of the South American Trilogy, a project by Argentine director Rubén Sabbadini, which seeks to translate and stage central texts of contemporary Latin American theatre.

Rubén Sabbadini, as both author and director, has had a long career in Portugal, having presented his work at the Almada and FITEI Festivals, among others. His most renowned works – Um Disfarce Magnífico, Um Fêmeo and 88 coisos de um minuto – were published in Portugal by Dois Dias Edições. Sergio Blanco, Uruguayan-French playwright, is one of the most frequently staged Latin American authors today and has received awards in several countries across America and Europe.

On November 15, there will be a post-show talk with the audience.