presents
massacre
May 13 - 17, 2015 @ La Mama Courthouse
Produced by Insite Arts
Co-production: Colectivo 84, Stone/Castro, Festival Citemor
Text and Direction: Paulo Castro
Artistic Residence: Negócio/Zdb (Lisbon)
Performers: John Romão and Paulo Castro
Colectivo 84 is a structure supported by the Government of Portugal -
de Estado
Cultura / Direção Geral das Artes
Sound Design: JohnSecretaria
Romão and
Paulo da
Castro
Wed 6.30pm | Thu, Fri, Sat 7.30pm | Sun 4pm
Co-Production: Colectivo 84, Stone/Castro, Festival Citemor
Producer: Insite Arts
Approximately 65 minutes
La Mama Courthouse
Image by Susana Paiva
There will be a full day workshop with Paulo Castro and John Romão
on Saturday May 16. Places are limited to 15. For information contact
Colectivo 84 is a structure supported
by the Government of Portugal - Secretaria de Estado da
[email protected] or see our Facebook event.
Cultura / Direção Geral das Artes
17.
“… the incongruous intersects with the satirical to create a unique, engaging production that
challenges our view of the truth.”
“Paulo Castro’s creation doesn’t seek refuge in language devices or gratuitous morals: in a direct,
simple and quick language, it speaks of everything that should be said – everything that must be
said – so that forgetting won’t lead to inhumanity.”
MASSACRE is an explosive theatre work about the politics and violence of East Timor.
Timor (John Romão) and East (Paulo Castro), work with weapons of grotesque, sarcasm and a trash
metal soundtrack to make this scenic game hypnotic and dangerous. The mutant metamorphosis
of Australia, Indonesia and Portugal make for an in your face confrontation to the East Timor crisis.
It is in this dubious context that the play takes place: money as a way of buying human dignity and
making us forget the massacres.
Since forming Stone/Castro in 2003 in Europe, Jo Stone and Paulo Castro have been
commissioned to direct, create and write contemporary theatre pieces for many Australian and
European Companies. For Massacre, Stone/Castro partnered with John Romao, Artstic Director of
Portugese based Colectivo 84. The result is a challenging, explosive piece of theatre.
Nobody runs, the massacre is almost over.
Stone/Castro
Since forming Stone/Castro in Europe 2003, Jo Stone and Paulo Castro have been commissioned
to direct, create, write and perform contemporary theatre pieces for Australian and European
Companies and Festivals. Independently they continue to freelance and have worked for companies
such as Company Les Ballet C de La B, Portuguese National Theatre, Chunky Move, SchaubuhneBerlin and State Theatre SA but together are recognized for forging unique, humorous, corrosive,
contemporary and original theatre/dance works. In 2014 Stone/Castro presented Decomposition
at the Adelaide Festival.
Stone/Castro (cont’d)
They have been nominated for various awards including Melbourne Green Room Awards, Ruby
Awards, Fringe Festival Award and the Helpmann Awards, among others. Jo and Paulo divide roles
of production, direction, choreography, writing and performing between them depending on the
vision for each production. Their aim is to create highly relevant theatre, using themes and fodder
from political and social events worldwide.
Stone/Castro passionately believe art is instrumental in breaking apart ideologies, both political and
social. We believe as a contemporary company (writing our own works) we have a responsibility
to manifest and reflect the times we are living in, in order to create and stimulate dialogue and
change. We aim to create provocative and accessible theatre that will awaken ourselves and
audiences, through questioning the human condition and the decisions being made for our future.
Paulo Castro
PAULO CASTRO is a renowned Portuguese theatre director, actor and filmmaker and playwright,
respected for his political and provocative works. Paulo was the recipient of the Best New Director
award in Portugal for his work on the 2001 European Capital of Culture in Portugal. He has directed
works at the Sao Joao National Theatre, including Edward Bon’s Red Black and Ingorant and
Chaos is Near God by Lars Noren.
Paulo formed Stone/ Castro with Jo Stone in 2003, writing, directing and performing in works
including Dis-integration Wake Up Hate, RED SKY and Massacre. In 2010 Paulo directed
Superheros in Space, which toured to Adelaide and Melbourne. Most recently Paulo wrote and
directed Decomposition for the 2014 Adelaide Festival. Other recent works include Death of a
Clown for Teatro Bando/Portuguese National Theatre in 2011, Director for Footsoldiers by Nicki
Bloom for Brink Productions, Tom the Loneliest for No Strings Attached and Motortown for the
Alakantara Festival Portugal.
Colectivo 84
Colectivo 84 / Penetrarte – Cultural Association is a structure founded in 2004. Under the artistic
direction of John Romão (actor and director) and Mickael de Oliveira (dramatist and investigator
of Theatrical Studies), this association’s goal is to diffuse and produce contemporary performance
arts, focusing primarily in creation theatre and Portuguese and European dramaturgy.
Colectivo 84’s program continues to try to answer the always disturbing meaning of the term
“contemporary”. What does Contemporary mean for Colectivo 84? The answer is set in four
points: 1) to structure its program through a theme from our time; 2) to defend a cross-cut idea of
contemporaneity of border crossing artistic objects (altermodernity); 3) a clear notion of wanting
to promote the creation of Portuguese dramaturgy, dramatic and post-dramatic; 4) to promote
the methodology of theatrical creation, surpassing barriers imposed by the classical concept of
“staging”, in search of an experimentation, accompanied by artists, thinkers and creators of our
time.
It has been sponsored by private, public and ministerial entities both nationally and internationally:
Direcção Regional de Cultura do Centro, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Direcção Geral das
Artes – Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, having established co-productions with National Theatre
D. Maria II (Lisbon), TAGV - Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente (Coimbra), CITEMOR Festival
(Montemor-o-Velho), Materiais Diversos Festival (Minde), Festival Temps d’Images (Lisbon), São
Luiz Teatro Municipal (Lisbon), Galeria Zé dos Bois (ZDB), RDP Antena 2 (Lisbon), Teatro La Laboral
(ES), Meteorit Theater (ESL), Stone/Castro (AUS), and it has been sponsored by Instituto Camões,
Goethe Institut and the European Union’s Culture Programme (2007-2013) – cooperation projects.
Colectivo 84 / Penetrarte – Cultural Association is a structure sponsored by Direcção Geral das
ARtes – Secretaria de Estado da Cultura and it is an associated structure of Galeria Zé dos Bois
(ZDB), in Lisbon, and Casa das Caldeiras, in Coimbra.
John Romao
Born in 1984. BA in Theatre – Actor / Theatre Director, Higher School of Theatre and Cinema (Lisbon). Internacional theatre course Nouvelle École des Maîtres / Project Thierry Salmon, directed
by Rodrigo García. Course of Aesthetics and Theories of Contemporary Art, National Society of
Arts (Lisbon). His formation includes the contact with artists from theatre and dance: Jan Fabre,
Romeo Castellucci, Wim Vandekeybus, Mónica Calle, Vera Mantero, João Fiadeiro, among others.
In theatre, he worked as an actor/performer with Paulo Castro, Tiago Rodrigues (Mundo Perfeito), Jorge Silva Melo (Artistas Unidos), Jorge Andrade (Mala Voadora), Nilo Gallego, Francisco
Salgado, Rodrigo García (La Carnicería Teatro), Maria João Machado, Marcos Barbosa, JeanPaul Bucchieri and Harvey Grossman. Since 2006 he is dramaturg and assistant director of the
Spanish-Argentine Rodrigo García (Europe Theatre Prize - New Theatrical Realities, 2008): Daisy
(Bonlieu Scène Nationale 2013), Gólgota
Picnic (Centro Dramático Nacional de Madrid, 2011), C’est comme ça et me faites pas chier
(Bonlieu Scène Nationale Annecy, 2010), Cruda, vuelta y vuelta, al punto, chamuscada. (Festival
d’Avignon, 2007), Arrojad mis cenizas sobre Mickey (Théâtre National Bretagne, 2006), Autocompassion (Citemor Festival 2006). He collaborated as performer and assistant director to Romeo
Castellucci for the performance Attore il tuo nome non è esatto (Venice Theatre Biennale 2011).
In cinema he worked with the artists João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira and the film directors João Pedro Rodrigues and Manoel de Oliveira.
He is directing his shows from 2001: Every Breath by Benedict Andrews (co-direction with Paulo
Castro, 2013), Horror or brief study about paralysis (Lisbon National Theatre, 2011), Agamémnon by Rodrigo García(São Luiz Teatro Municipal, 2011), I die as a country by Dimítris Dimitriádis
(Citemor Festival, 2010), The arch of hysteria (Negócio/ZDB, 2010), High Speed (Citemor Festival, 2009), 70kg (2009), Hippolytus by Mickael de Oliveira (2009), Why can i be me (2005-2006),
Landscape by Harold Pinter (2007), Distant by Caryl Churchill, etc. Awarded with the national
prize Jovens Criadores 2012 in the category of Theatre (CPAI, Portugal). Awarded for the project
Emergentes - New Theatre Directors, by Lisbon National Theatre D. Maria II (2011). Awared with
Almada, Terra Artes e Criatividade for his work in theatre field (2010). Co-director of the Festival
END – Encounters of New Dramaturgy, who promotes the new portuguese and european dramaturgy. Teacher of Contemporary Theatre at Higher School of Dance (Lisbon).
Office Phone: (03) 9347 6948 | Office Hours: Mon – Fri | 10:30am – 5:30pm
Level 1, 205 Faraday Street, Carlton VIC 3053
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Our sincerest thanks to the many volunteers who generously give their time in support of La Mama.
La Mama’s Committee of Management, staff and its wider theatrical community acknowledge
that our theatre is on traditional Wurundjeri land.
The La Mama community acknowledges the considerable support it has received in the past
decade from Jeannie Pratt and The Pratt Foundation.
La Mama is financially assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council – its
arts funding and advisory body, the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria - Department of
Premier and Cabinet, and the City of Melbourne through the Arts and Culture triennial funding
program.