Lisboa is a street performance, originally born out of the Compagnia Laboratorio di Pontedera production Abito, which is dedicated to the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. In Abito, four characters interact with a chorus in bicycle, and the actions of this chorus have been the starting point of Lisboa.

Fernando Pessoa arrives in the city. His heteronyms – the fictional poets he created and who signed many of his works – come to life to accompany him on his visit. These 11 figures dressed in black move through the city’s streets and squares on their bicycles, falling, pedaling towards the sky, or dancing with their bicycles, recreating with the songs, music, and texts the atmosphere of the old Portuguese capital.

Pessoa visits shops, enters houses, or appears with his heteronyms in windows and on balconies, and involve the spectators and the passers-by, projecting them into an epoch beyond time. The urban space, thus visited by these figures from “another world”, acquires, even for the everyday spectator, the quality of “the first time”.

The performance starts at h 17.00 from Ponte Vecchio in Florence and concludes, with the last action, in the outdoor square of Stazione Leopolda.

direction: Anna Stigsgaard
actors: Alice Casarosa, Alice Maestroni, Chiara Coletta, Cristina Valota, Irene Rametta, Julia Filippo, Marco Picello, Sara Zanella, Silvia Tufano, Simone Evangelisti, Valentina Bechi
production: Fondazione Pontedera Teatro

Lisboa is part of the events of Festival d’Europa and of La Notte Blu.