Joana Providência & Maria do Céu Ribeiro

The latest performance by Joana Providência and Maria do Céu Ribeiro is based on Peter Handke’s “Selbstbezichtigung” [Self-Accusation]. It is one of the so-called “Sprechstücke” [Spoken Plays], in which there are no characters, narration or scenery, and words get the leading role. This text by the Austrian playwright comprises a provocative game with the audience and focuses on the act of speaking. Speech as action. In “Auto-Acusação” [Self-Accusation] the author is the one who confesses “I…”, but it is as much addressed at himself as it is at any of those on stage or in the audience: “I went to the theatre. I heard this piece. I spoke this piece. I wrote this piece.” If on the one hand language allows for a surprising voice work, on the other hand the way that “I” voice is built results in a true polyphony that triggers physical actions. Both the choreographer and the actress/theatre director, who co-direct this work, are interested in reassessing the purpose of Handke and his post-dramatic theatre in the light of a time that deeply changed the perception habits of the audience, of today’s audience.


Joana Providência was born in Braga, in 1965. She’s been one of the artistic directors at Teatro do Bolhão since its foundation in 2002. Among her many creations as a choreographer stand out “Rumor” [Rumour], based on the work by Christian Boltanski, “Vestígio” [Trace], based on the work by photographer Georges Dussaud, “Território” [Territory], based on the work by Alberto Carneiro, and “Mecanismos” [Mechanisms], which won the Sete d’Ouro New Talent Award.

Maria do Céu Ribeiro joined the cast of the Porto University Theatre from 1989 to 1993. She completed the acting course at the Academia Contemporânea do Espectáculo (ACE), Porto, in 1993. She started her professional career in 1994 with William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, directed by Silviu Purcčrete, at Teatro Nacional S. João. She is one of the founders of the theatre company As Boas Raparigas Vão Para o Céu, as Más Para Todo o Lado, and she featured in all the plays it presented. She also performed in Sophocles’ “Antigone”, Chekhov’s “Tri sestry” [Three Sisters], Joana Providência’s “Rumor” [Rumour], and Koltès’ “Le Jour des meurtres dans l’histoire d’Hamlet” [The Day of Murders in the Story of Hamlet”. She has been teaching voice/ oral expression at ACE since 1998.