The beauty of killing fascists – that’s what the title means, we argue – of a play by Rodrigues, Portuguese author, playwright, and director and also the first non-French director of the prestigious Avignon Festival. Inspired by a real story, the show explores the issues of today and the ideological controversy of a past epoch, tearing open the veil of respectability with provocative irreverence and quick rhythm. Beleizão, southern Portugal, May 1954.
Caterina Eufémia, 26, an illiterate day labourer protesting for better pay, is killed by a fascist gendarme.
Rodrigues brings Catarina’s spirit back to life: she appears to her niece in a dream, asking for revenge. A family tradition was born: every year, they would meet in the country house in Beleizão, and would kidnap and kill a fascist to avenge their ancestor. The ritual continues for over seventy years, until a younger Catarina turns 26, and won’t participate in it.

30 June, 1 July h. 8pm
Teatro Piccolo  Arsenale