Being an inherently insular text, you could stage this show anywhere in the country?
EC: I think so, because I understand. Is not closed, you may not understand our accent is in some parts. That's it. As a message, if it resonates the same as in Madera, in the same way? I do not know. But there is a Shakespearean side in what Ernesto Leal writes. I think it's a universal message. When the story of an anon, with its black seed, who understood that? The Madera people better comprehend, the stage has this power, we may be talking about something local that seems homemade, but that touches the hearts of viewers of other worlds. We did a play of Alberto Caeiro with Maderan accent, more "the letter from the hump lady to the locksmith," one of the few texts that it said that Fernando Pessoa wrote and tour the island with it and everybody was thrilled and thought, from who is this text? When we said the name of the author, everyone was very surprised. I believe the stories of Ernesto Leal would have the same effect, we are using has a text called the ox, is almost a dialogue, is a man who falls in love with this animal. It is a tale with a magnitude that exceeds the geography. Ernesto had not physical limits, had his heart on Madeira, the island he brought with him and it was this wealth that he preserved until the end of his life.
Being an artist above all connected to the theater, you see perceive the kind of public of Madeira? The come to the theater?
CE: They do came, but few. I can speak for FET, is a phenomenon affecting 12 000 spectators per year, mostly because of the theater for children. Kids are forced to come as often say. It is not true. There is a serious work, hard data and merit of professionals, if not teachers will not brought them up here to see the plays. The theater for adults too, but let's say you have 125,000 potential viewers, we only reached the 12 000 that I mentioned. Are the same going to see the com.tema and other companies with different structures, more or less professional. There is a large audience to be conquered, but first you need to change the cultural attitude of the locals. Then there are curious phenomena in 2003, in Funchal, half of a school audience got up and left the room offended as we started to say the eighth poem, which is about the baby Jesus of Alberto Caeiro. Then mount the show in some parish halls, but first we warm the priest, some said very well and others were suspicious, the poem states that everything in heaven is as stupid as the Catholic Church. If you read the whole text, we see that is a beautiful poem. This will describe the way of the people of Madeira and that all is not as imagined. In St. Vincent, we had a show in which people often laughed at, but this in particular they did not react at all and were very quiet. We thought everything was going from bad to worse, after an hour of show. In the end, a few old ladies came and told us that they really liked, but could not laugh because in the audience was the mayor of Calheta. (Laughs)
As an actor with a greater media exposure, because of your participation in a youth series and soap operas, it made more people come to the theater?
EC: No. I'm sure two or three people have come to the theater, after seeing my work on television, but not enough. Unless it was a whole cast and that is not the case of FET. Those events are marketing. I'm sure more people came, but did not filled the room. Television was an accident at the age of 33. In the theater, I worked in Lisbon, comparing the average viewers, here is very good, be the envy of many of my colleagues and companies that are there, so they are more than 100 viewers per show, one hundred performances a year in different productions. Can we compare ourselves the cornucopia, or the open theater? There is no comparison, we work with different audiences in different ways and with different funding. The FET does not work for their navel, do it for people. It is not to entertain, is to make them think. I review myself in the theater, I have worked on this team, as an actor was born here and I'm not parochial about it, we want to bring people to the ideas and to entertain them there are people who do it very well is the area of humor .
Your natural environment is the theater then? Because you refer to television as an accident.
EC: It's because you never know what will happen. If I am going to be invited or not. Was it magnificent? I really enjoy it. If there are differences? Yes, of course there are. We are not reciting Shakespeare. Being natural is a very demanding work of the actor. I used to say when you're recording or on stage, you must be present, to be actor. This requires work. It was an accident, I hope it happens more often. It is something that has a stupid side, a person who is twenty years in the theater, such as Paula Guerra is not known as a guy who participates in strawberries with sugar, it is. If it attracts more people to the theater? I'm not sure. You can attract the younger, perhaps, but it is so ephemeral. My feet are firmly on the ground. I'm still here, screeching for more than twenty years on stage.
In twenty-year of a career as an actor, you noticed a trend? I go to the theater and I noticed a generational gap, older people, very young but not the public of my age.
EC: It can be seen and I can assure you that FET is doing children's theater for many years and it is not clear that they come to the theater, we have significant data in this sense, and the company must be at national level with the greatest number of performances for children. There is an age range from 15 years to 35 years, who prefers to spend the money on drinks rather than a play. Then has the various means by which they create the illusion of participation, which are the facebook and other television productions. Twenty years later, there is no development, but there are more talents. More people graduate contrary to what might seem. Also, there are the ones who want to be to be famous. Many come to me saying they want to be actors of strawberries and sugar, I say no, have to bet before in your training. But is it necessary? It is necessary and is the people who bet on their training longer endure to live in their art. There was no retreat, there is more creativity and the public has not increased. Why? There is more competition, more activities and little interest in the theater. We agents fail? Maybe. We are told: do more light comedies. We do not relinquish the principle that the theater is enjoyment and also reflection in balanced doses. Some say the strategy is for us to be less closed, but I speak in the name of FET and say that we have always been very eclectic. We do everything, even though Greek authors and the public that you are talking about, does not appear. Then talk of a theater for youth, but what is it? Doing things closer to strawberries with sugar, would that be it? Twenty years later I feel this and more I hear people say, it is as good as a theater company from the outside, is not normal. It should not happen.
Note the difference in public, when you stage a funnier play rather than serious?
EC: At the start yes. People do not want to see sorrow. There are things we can do with this show, "Madera my dear" is a tragicomedy, is deep and has touching moments, why? Because he has much poetry, if it had a comic load would also be a book, if it is done on purpose to attract more audience? No, but it's a show, could not be the poetry of Ernesto Leal. I really like the comedy-drama. But not always is possible to find texts. Then we have the phenomena of the public, as the text of Horton Wilder, a classic of all time, "our city," the theater was always full, on top of a drama that talks about life and death. Then we did "sex strike" by Aristophanes, with an extraordinary public.
So the theater is not dead, because they go and there is a public.
EC: Yes, the theater has something that distinguishes it is the presence. There is nowhere else like it, I have that room, and I will share the co-spatiality with that artist. This is unique. Some people say we complain about lack of public schools that no longer come to us because due of transport problems. The bus ticket is more expensive than of the theater. There are always ideas, like bringing the theater to schools and groups that do exist, but we still think that the theater is the place where we go, so it's worth leaving the house and people have to move. We want them to come, not for our convenience, but because we want them to have that magic, rip the ticket at the door of the theater, the ritual of going into the audience. This stays in the children.
And touring the island what do see?
EC: A bit of everything. I did a play at the Corral of the Pilgrims, a garage, was one of the most beautiful shows of my life. Once, me and Bruno Bravo put on a play, a text of Raimundo Gomes de la Serna, "the roses commit suicide," aphorisms, we are both sitting on two machines of poison and a screen. It is a beautiful book that was adapted for the first time at the national theater by our company. We tour around the island and appeared fully nude and the two had a beautiful roaming. In the former home of Seedlings, five minutes we were waiting for people, especially women, to stop laughing to continue with the show. We thought we were going to be expelled and a text was pulled, which led people to think and liked it.
What do you think will be the evolution of the theater, the next twenty years?
EC: I hope the next twenty years evolves, because until now has been very little. It is a matter of courtesy and respect. Appreciation of what has been done, it often seems that we are at square one.
Do you think that has to do with the fact that is a subsidized art?
EC: I usually say you have this incentive to work and Luis Miguel Cintra says no comparison, he is a genius in the national theater and completely subsidies dependent. When given for this and proven, I think it is valid as any other area. I think the doctors that are subsidized to heal the sick, the teachers who are subsidized to educate and whether the state has this social cause, the theater does not deserve it? You can subsidize a company to come up with ideas. Create, not entertain. Sometimes it feels almost begging. Yes, we are here, we have worked professionally, requires 8 hours a day to mount a show. You have to explain all the times to exhaustion the same as if we had not been doing this for over 20 years? Attention, age is not a position, I am speaking specifically of the FET. They ask things like, it takes so long to do theater? Yes, we're professionals. They cannot do it at the end of the day? Amateurs can, professionals need a longer work, the preparation of a drama, a text in time. We repeat this several times, because they confused the amateur and the professional and in this respect not evolved much.
Why does this happen?
EC: For lack of training in cultural terms. They do not distinguish a show of bad quality. There are people in the audience who have not yet distinguish the actor who sings the text from the one who recites correctly. Unfortunately, this happens. It also no solution amateurs scorned professionals and vice versa. None replaces another. There is a widespread confusion, which compares three productions per year of Luis Miguel Cintra that cost 700 000 euro, with great costumes and sets and even the theater production of the FET includes a schedule in which more than 50% of texts are of Portuguese, by chance, 40% of the world's great drama and other text that does not even have theatrical form and are transformed in this direction, with an amateur producer who claims he staged four parts with zero euro. Lacks education and awareness.
