Articles
(December
2002) Situated in the heart of the Estrela district, the Lisbon Players' Theatre - O Teatro Inglês - is a welcoming but little known theatre space which has been providing a varied repertoire of plays in English to Lisbon audiences for over fifty years. Its theatre building , Estrela Hall, was built in 1909 on the corner of Rua da Estrela and Rua Saraiva de Carvalho, converted into a theatre with the establishment of The Lisbon Players in 1947, and underwent major changes in 1962. It was originally connected to the group of British organizations that occupy the site which adjoins the British church and cemetery. Estrela Hall is still remembered by some older Lisboetas as the venue for the showing of anti-Nazi propaganda films during the war, when the building was commandeered by the British Embassy. It was also used by the prestigious Companhia Amélia Rey Colaço/Robles Monteiro when it was homeless, and before it took up permanent residence in the Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II . The theatre consists of a 120-seat auditorium with seating on stalls and balcony levels and a wide raked proscenium stage. Backstage there are dressing rooms and storage areas and there is also a large bar and foyer area. The lighting box is at the back of the auditorium at balcony level. In its long and varied existence it has had several exciting moments: in 1962, as the first Lisbon theatre to put on Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot', it had a visit from a couple of PIDE agents who, after watching part of a dress rehearsal in total incomprehension, decided that as it was in an idioma estrangeira it couldn't constitute much of a threat to the regime and let the performance go ahead! In its early years the group had a distinctly British flavour, in terms of the performers and the audience; expatriates entertaining expatriates. However, demographic and social changes over the past twenty years or so have meant that the company has had to reinvent itself in many ways, though it retains its original brief of performing in the English language. Its audience and its membership have become far more international, and Portuguese make up a large part of its audience as well as a sizeable proportion of performers and back-stage staff. Several prominent Portuguese theatre practitioners have cut their teeth on the boards of Estrela Hall, and it is recognized both as a good training ground for people who want to go on to make a career in the performing arts and as a valuable educational resource for schools and universities. As far as the repertoire goes, the group aims at a mix of classics, modern plays and the occasional musical show. Amongst playwrights performed over the past ten years are Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Chekhov, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Oliver Goldsmith, Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, Sophocles, David Mamet and David Edgar. It has also been responsible for some important Portuguese premières including the original 1728 version of John Gay's 'The Beggar's Opera', the radical musical about the First World War 'Oh What a Lovely War' and the first English language production of Fernando Pessoa's 'The Mariner'. While the Lisbon Players generally performs in its home, the Estrela Hall, it does occasionally venture further afield: in 1992 'Ophelinha', a new play based on the relationship between Fernando Pessoa and Ophelia Queirós was invited to the newly opened Centro Cultural de Belém and in 1993 it mounted a highly successful open-air production of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in the Parque de Palmela in Cascais. For the past two years it has taken productions to the Quinta do Paço Arts Centre in the Algarve: 'Death and the Maiden' last year and 'Talking Heads' this year, and the latter production was also invited to this year's International Theatre Festival in Portalegre. Besides its main productions – usually three a year – the Lisbon Players also runs workshops, playreadings and poetry and musical evenings. It also occasionally, when its own programme permits, plays host to productions by other companies. The Lisbon Players has a permanent membership of around 200 and up to 40 people actively involved in the work at any time. The active members include many trained theatre professionals as well as people who are new to theatre work. Besides work directly connected with putting on productions there are also people involved in publicity and marketing, front-of-house management, and running the bar and the box office. The company is amateur – no-one is paid for their work – and the Lisbon Players, contrary to popular belief, operates with no subsidy or financial support of any kind. Its only revenue is from ticket sales and the very occasional hire of the theatre. The upkeep of the building is expensive and, as anyone who knows the theatre will testify, it is in desperate need of renovation, both backstage and front-of-house. In order for this vital cultural resource to continue enriching the theatrical life of Lisbon for another fifty years, The Lisbon Players is appealing for financial help to renovate the building so the company can continue its important work of entertaining, educating and involving new participants and new theatre audiences of all nationalities and ages. Jonathan Weightman |