After its June premiere at the Casa das Artes de Famalicão, the Ensemble – Sociedade de Actores presents Pedro Galiza’s play DUPLA at the Helena Sá e Costa Theatre in Porto from October 30th to November 2nd. The play will be performed at 9:30 pm on October 30th, 31st, and November 1st. On November 2nd, the performance will begin at 5 pm.
Promoting new Portuguese drama is a fundamental focus of the Ensemble, whether by well-known and established authors or those less well-known. Following this principle, they challenged Pedro Galiza to write an original play.
DUPLA features actors Emília Silvestre and Pedro Galiza.
Fifty-year career. An event to be celebrated, obviously, but also a punishment: theatre, in its painful and constant search for a truth based on pretence, is a difficult beast to tame, for it bites as much as it purrs. And an actress who has lived exclusively in and for the theatre for five decades must have become a very special beast herself, eminently observable, yes, beautiful in her fury and gracefully dangerous in her mature subtlety, but so, so fragile in her fear. These fifty long years reek of death. And she knows it. Based on Ma Double Vie, the autobiography Sarah Bernhardt wrote when the celebrated actress was the exact age of our fictional protagonist, DUPLA is a head-on clash between two seemingly irreconcilable personalities: that of the experienced actress, who knows very well what theater is, and that of the playwright/director/creator/snake oil salesman, who knows very little about theater. But the stage is also a fertile incubator for these comically impossible situations, because in addition to the two usually mentioned—death and taxes—life must be accompanied by a third fatality: the premiere date. This will have to premiere, no matter what. And this duo will have to figure it out.
In 2026, DUPLA will take the stage at the Bragança Municipal Theatre.
October 30 to November 2: Helena Sá e Costa Theatre, Porto
Thursday, Friday + Saturday: 9:30 pm | Sunday: 5 p.m.
Artistic Profile:
Playwriting and Directing: Pedro Galiza
Playwriting and Directing Assistant: Marta Bernardes
Stage Space: Nuno Leites and Pedro Galiza
Video: Nuno Leites
Music: Sofia Faria Fernandes
Sound Design: Ricardo Pinto
Lighting Design: Tiago Silva
Costume Design: Cátia Barros
Acting: Emília Silvestre and Pedro Galiza
TICKET OFFICE:
Helena Sá e Costa Theatre, Porto
Admission: €10
Students and Seniors: €5
Co-production: Ensemble – Actors’ Society | Casa das Artes de Famalicão | Bragança Municipal Theatre
Supported by: Casa Comum/University of Porto, Antena 2, and RDP África
Duration: 1 hour and 15 minutes (approximately)
Age range: PG-14
ENSEMBLE is a structure supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports / Directorate-General for the Arts
ENSEMBLE – Actors’ Society
www.ensembledeactores.com
https://www.facebook.com/ensembledeactores
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Original post from 2025.09.30
