“A Memória do Aqueduto” the unlikely show in a decommissioned reservoir

In trippy SciFi-retro-political mode, the project by the artistic collective Visões Úteis is part of the FITEI program and premieres on May 15th. Fiction or prophecy, the play explores a dystopia about water that is no longer drinkable and the sanitation that threatens to swallow us up.

“What if the water that comes out of your tap was only drinkable in the premium version that you can’t afford? What if sanitation threatened to drown you? What if the solution to save us lay in the aqueduct built by Hadrian, the Roman Emperor? ‘The Memory of the Aqueduct’ is a play for engineers and people reclining, in a water reservoir, in trip-SciFi-retro-political mode.”

The teaser from the artistic collective Visões Úteis is suggestive, but this is a case where the lyrics match the grimace. Also, because the show by the Porto Alegre company, which is part of the program of the 48th edition of FITEI – International Festival of Iberian Expression Theatre, will have a stage and audience set up in a disused water reservoir, in the Amial region, in Porto.

With its premiere scheduled for May 15th (in two sessions, at 9 pm and 11 pm), the project continues the creations of Visões Úteis for specific, sometimes unusual, sites, and the play is presented (on May 16th, 17th, 19th, 20th and 21st, always at 9:30 pm) as a “sensory invitation to immersion” in a unique space and heritage of the city of Porto. And in a “seductive visual and sound record”, in which one of “humanity’s most serious concerns is confused with a retro science fiction environment”, as highlighted by Carlos Costa, playwright, director and artistic director of Visões Úteis.

In this 75-minute “fiction, or prophecy”, we will meet an engineer from the Porto water company and a counterpart from Athens – “yes, it seems like a play for engineers, especially since the performers are engineers with experience in water management” -, both in search of solutions for the “dystopian problems in which their cities risk floating or sinking: water that is no longer drinkable and sanitation that threatens to swallow us”, as the synopsis reads.

This time, the project was inspired by water, its cycle (and concerns surrounding the topic), as well as by Hadrian’s Aqueduct (Athens) and the hidden work of the teams that guarantee public water and sanitation services.

“A Memória do Aqueduto” therefore also serves as a “tribute to two invisible dimensions beneath the feet of all those who live on the surface”: on the one hand, the underground constructions that accumulate there, testimony to centuries of history; and, on the other hand, the work of the teams that dive into the ground every day to ensure that everything works on the surface.

Carlos Costa, who once again has the collaboration of Jorge Palinhos in the direction and dramaturgy, developed a long research process, between 2018 and 2020, which took him down to the subsoil of the Invicta City, to, with the support of Águas do Porto and the Portuguese Army, familiarize himself with pipelines, mines and other such things. Underground where the springs flow (especially those of Paranhos, Salgueiros and those that come down from Marquês and Alto da Fontinha) important for the fiction in hand and the setting for the various social tensions that, according to the vision created, will cross the city of Porto, as had already happened in the author’s second novel.

“We believe that underground networks, running in all directions, could function as a metaphor (more or less contrasting) with everything that divides us on the surface in cultural, social and political terms”, notes Jorge Palinhos. This union arises through the contact of any two points, which “allows people to connect through water”.

The project unfolds on the ground in activities of social and artistic mediation

And how, in this story, did people from Porto Alegre and Athenians connect? Through the parallel work of one of the most interesting collectives in the Hellenic capital, Ohi Pezoume, personified by the artistic director Giorgos Sachinis, engineer and director of Strategy and Innovation at the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company, EYDAP.

Sachinis develops several artistic and community projects in his homeland that aim to increase citizen participation around the use and protection of Hadrian’s Aqueduct (a remarkable 23 km engineering feat commissioned by Emperor Hadrian and completed around 140 AD), understood as both a water resource and a monument.

From 2020 onwards, EYDAP promoted a map of its supply network, with the motto, there it is, of connecting any two people through the same network that supplies them with what promises to be the most precious asset of the 21st century: water.

“In May 2025, with ‘The Memory of the Aqueduct’, we intend to literally apply the EYDAP motto, here understood as a cultural, social and economic factor”, explain the authors.

Before its debut on stage, the project will therefore take part in various social and artistic mediation activities in the Carriçal neighborhood, which surrounds the reservoir, in partnership with FAP – Federação Académica do Porto and Águas do Porto. Visões Úteis plans to take children and users of the FAP project’s housing unit in the neighborhood to visit the Water Pavilion and the Water Park, in addition to organizing an activity at EB1 in São Tomé, about the water cycle, and also a theater workshop (and a snack) at the FAP facilities.

THE MEMORY OF THE AQUEDUCT

• Event location: Amial Water Reservoir, Vigo City Street, S/N, Porto
• Reception, ticket office and WC: FAP No Bairro, Rua da Cidade de Vigo,150, Porto
• Dates and times: May 15, 9 pm + 11 pm (premiere)
• May 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 9:30 p.m.
• Approximate duration: 75 minutes
• Age Rating: M/12

ARTISTIC AND TECHNICAL SHEET:

• Dramaturgy and Direction: Carlos Costa & Jorge Palinhos
• Set Design, Costumes, Props: Inês de Carvalho
• Lighting Design: Pedro Correia
• Video, Graphic Design: Sara Allen
• Original Soundtrack, Sound Effects, Sound Design: Vasco Zentzua
• Co-creation: Giorgos Sachinis
• Interpretation: João Delgado Lourenço, Matilde Cancelliere and also Alice Costa, Ana Vitorino, Carlos Costa, Giorgos Sachinis, Marina Aloupi, Rita Pinheiro.
• Production Coordination: Claudia Alfaiate
• Media Consulting and Social Media Management: MS Impacto
• Accounting: Helena Madeira
• Production: Useful Visions, in co-production with FITEI – International Festival of Iberian Expression, in partnership with Águas do Porto, EM

About Useful Views:

Visões Úteis is an artistic project based in Porto, where it was founded in 1994. Theater was the root of a constant and intense activity that quickly expanded to other areas of the performing arts. And in recognition of its artistic work with diverse audiences, the collective received the Gold Medal of Cultural Merit from the City of Porto in 2001. The group’s scope of action extends to a range of projects, parallel to the creation and touring of shows, which have always reflected the desire to confront other areas and audiences far removed from artistic production. Visões Úteis is a member of PLATEIA – Association of Performing Arts Professionals, IETM – International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, APCEN – Portuguese Scenography Association and ZERO – Sustainable Earth System Association.

Always confirm with the concert hall or promoter the conditions of access, confirmation of the date or time, ticket place of sale, price, and availability.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok and see the exclusive content for social networks.