A show by the Bolhão Theater, staged by Joana Providência and Maria do Céu Ribeiro, from Peter Handke, Auto-Acusação (Self-accusation), is one of the entitled Spoken Pieces, in which there are no characters, narration or scenery and the word takes center stage of the scene.
There is a provocative game with the viewer in this text by the Austrian playwright who focuses on the act of speaking. Speech as an action. In Auto-Acusação, the confession “I…” is made both by the author but addressed to himself as well as to anyone on the stage and in the audience: “I went to the theater. I heard this piece. I said this piece. I wrote this piece. ” If, on the one hand, language allows for surprising voice work, on the other, the way the voice of this “I” is developed here generates a true polyphony that triggers physical actions.
For the choreographer and the actress and director who co-direct this work, it is interesting to reevaluate that intention of Handke and his post-dramatic theater in the light of a time that profoundly changed the perception habits of the public, the audience today.