At the Shelter of Distance

Rui Catalão

Rui Catalão (b. 1971) has presented in the last six years autobiographical solo performances that include: “Dentro das Palavras” [“Within Words”], “Av. dos Bons Amigos”[“Good Friends Avenue”], “Canções/Comentários” [“Songs/Commentaries”], “A Grande Dívida – ciclo de conferências” [“The Great Debt – conferences”] and “Trabalho Precário” [“Temporary Work”] in which he draws a portrait of the private lives of people of his generation.  With this as a model, he directed the young Mozambican-born amateur, Luís Macaura, in a solo called “Medo a caminho” [“Fear on its Way”]. In 2016, he presented “Judite” at the Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II, Lisbon and in 1917, “Assembleia”, in which the public is invited to debate issues of interest to the community. He has also worked on pedagogical projects such as “Domados, ou não” [“Tamed, or Not”] and more recently, a workshop called “Agora, faz tu!” [Now, you do it!”], which covered working methods, dramaturgical construction, creative independence and decision-making in real time. He wrote “Ester” for Panos – Culturgest’s young people’s theatre programme. His work lies on the border between private and public space and addresses memories, fragility, manipulation and transparency.  In the last 16 years, he has worked on performances with João Fiadeiro (beginning with “O que eu sou não fui sozinho” [“What I am was not on my own”] in 2000), Miguel Pereira, Ana Borralho, João Galante, Manuel Pelmus, Mihaela Dancs, Madalina Dan, Edi Gabia and the recent revelations: Sofia Dinger, Urândia Aragão and Elmano Sancho. He worked with Tonan Quito on the staging of Odön von Horváth’s “Fé, Caridade, Esperança” [“Faith, Hope and Charity”], which he partially rewrote to express ideas and opinions of amateur actors in the cast. He wrote the screenplays of “O capcete dourado”[“The Golden Helmet”] and “Morrer como um homen” [“Die Like a Man”] and acted in the film “A Cara que mereces” [“The Face You Deserve”].  He’s been a journalist and also the music and literary critic for the Público and the Jornal de Sintra newspapers.  He organised and edited “Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker em Lisboa” and wrote “Ingredientes do Mundo Perfeito” [“Ingredients for a Perfect World] on the work of Tiago Rodrigues in theatre.