Alex Cassal e Paula Diogo

By 2100 the world may have lost half of its languages: of the 7,000 currently spoken languages, it is expected that 50% will not survive until the end of the century. On the road to extinction, they take with them stories, knowledge, identities and differences. In Portugal, the languages under threat are the minderico, ladino, barranquenho and mirandês, among others. Languages which are restricted to small regions and localities, spoken by an increasingly smaller number of people. Languages which, even so, also represent the Portuguese culture. A Menor Língua do Mundo is a project which proposes itself as a space for conversation, organizing creative meetings between a multidisciplinary group of artists and groups of speakers of minderico, mirandês and barranquenho. The aim here is not to record something that was, but the exploration of possible things to come; less a museum and more of a fair. We want to research what these languages can and want to say today. And to consider up to what point the extinction is or not inevitable. We imagined a troupe that would travel through an extinct land (taking advantage of the mobilizing and ironic potential of apocalyptic fantasies) stubbornly presenting a variety show using that which they gathered during their journey: jokes and songs, burlesque choreographies and epic poems, erudite references and trained animals. A caravan of wonders travelling through the end of the world.

Ficha Técnica

Texto e encenação Alex Cassal e Paula Diogo Elenco Bibi Dória, Sílvia Felipe e Zia Soares Desenho de Luz Wilma Moutinho Cenografia Fernando Ribeiro Assistência de cenografia Elsa Mencagli Direcção Musical João Lopes Pereira Músico convidado a definir em cada cidade Registo audiovisual Leonor Castro Guerra Produção executiva Vanda Cerejo Co-produção Materiais Diversos, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, Teatro Municipal do Porto Apoio à pesquisa CIDLES Centro Interdisciplinar de Documentação Linguística e Social Apoio à criação Alkantara

Artists Bio

Alex Cassal, director, playwright and actor, graduated in History. He lives between Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon. In Brazil, he directs the group Foguetes Maravilha, responsible for shows presented in various theaters and festivals throughout Brazil. He collaborates with artists of the performing arts like Enrique Diaz, Dani Lima, Michelle Moura, Ricardo Chacal and Gustavo Ciríaco. His video “Navel of the World”, winner of Rumos Dance Award 2007, has already been shown in countries like Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, USA, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Greece, China and Japan. With Tiago Rodrigues, he participated in the projects Studios, Hotel Lutécia and Mundo Maravilha. And, in 2012, he presented the repertoire of the Marvelous Rockets at the Teatro Maria Matos, alkantara space and at the Festival Materiais Diversos; and wrote the text Septeto Fatal for the Festival PANOS, of Culturgest. In 2015, he staged the Tornados show with finalist students from the School of Theater and Cinema – ESTC. In 2016, he staged The Invisible Cities – a number of objects move in a certain space in the Teatro Maria Matos.

Paula Diogo. Bachelor’s degree from ESTC in Lisbon. She attended the course of Modern Languages ​​and Literatures – Portuguese and Spanish variant of FLUCL. She was co-founder of Teatro Praga (1995-08), TRUTA (2003-10) and producer O Pato Profissional Lda (2003-10), where she worked as a creator and production coordinator, crossing several skills. In 2004 she was distinguished by the CPAI with the Prize Theater in the Decade – Best actress by the show Private Lives, of the Theater Prague. In 2006 she was a CNC fellow accompanying the Gob Squad (UK / DE) in Berlin. In 2007 she attended the CCA Program of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation with the English Third Angel. In 2009 she began to develop Má-Creação, a label associated with the production company O Pato Profissional dedicated to collaborative performance and theater projects. In 2010 she was a stage manager at NTN in Naples, Italy, directed by Antonio Latella. Here she created the shows Rosa Lux and Madame. Currently collaborates with several creators and companies in Portugal, France and Italy.