(dr)
Catarina and the beauty of killing fascists (Portuguese cast)
Play by Tiago Rodrigues is called “Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists”. The premiere in Bochum was not peaceful: two people tried to take an actor off the stage.
A debut of a performance of the play “Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists”, of Tiago Rodriguesalready Germany, was marked by insults and a stage invasion.
Tiago Rodrigues’ play premiered on Saturday at a concert hall in Bochum, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, directed by Mateja Koleznik.
According to the British newspaper, in the final monologue of the play – whose character is a far-right politician – actor Ole Lagerpusch (below in the image) was insulted and booed by the audience, a piece of fruit was thrown at him and two people managed to climb onto the stage, in an attempt to remove him from there.
Theater spokesman Alexander Kruse considered this attack “completely unacceptable”, while director Mateja Koleznik expressed shock at the “stupidity and brutality” of the incident, wrote “The Guardian”.
“I was really surprised by the stupidity. I never thought – no one thought – that someone from the audience would jump on stage and try to hit the actor. I would expect that from the people we voted against, but not from the people who should be on our side”, said the director.
“Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists”, premiered in 2020 in Guimarães, is a play written and performed by Tiago Rodrigues, and talks about a family that has a tradition of killing fascists.
In a country house, in the south of Portugal, the family gathers so that their youngest member, Catarina, can begin the ritual, killing the first fascist who was kidnapped on purpose to be killed. The day that was supposed to be one of celebration, beauty and death, however, ends up starting a family conflict, as Catarina reveals herself to be incapable of killing, refusing to be initiated into the family ritual.
The play ends with a long speech by a member of the party then in power, who speaks of a new Republic, a new Constitution and more than half a century of a country “governed by bandits” and who, then in power, criticizes “minorities that do not respect majorities”.
In 2020, when the play premiered in Portugal, Tiago Rodrigues explained the final monologue to journalists: “I wrote a speech for a character in this play, a far-right populist who came to power. I don’t give the movement a name, the most important thing is not the name of the movement, but the ideas of that movement.”
For the director, it is a “very clear approach to the threat of the rise of populism far-right, with a fascist tendency, so as not to actually call them fascists”.
The play has remained on stage since 2020, with many sold out sessions, accumulating prizes and representations in international concert halls, on different continents.
Em Roma, its debut was accompanied by protests of far-right forces, with a deputy from the Brothers of Italy party (Fratelli d’Italia, now in Government), Federico Mollicone, asking that the show was removed of the poster.
