There is a different stage show happening within a book that invites the audience to strip down a plot…

“How to Draw a Naked Daughter”, the innovative performance by the collective Visões Úteis that integrates reading, theatre, and design premieres in Famalicão on October 10 and is set to tour Porto, Athens, and Bragança.

A book as the starting point. An actress as the guiding host. A special plot functioning as a navigation chart, yet with a somewhat uncertain destination. Moreover, probably different for each of the 20 to 30 privileged passengers willing to embark on a one-hour journey. Interactive, unique. All thanks to a reading dynamic that explores “the word as a haunting” or “creation as a problem.” To invite the audience to discover and reconstruct not only the work and thoughts of an artist but also the truth of the lie, using – as if they were detectives – the information provided throughout the show to unravel the enigma of the journey. Enveloped by the sound design and scenography created by the Porto artistic collective Visões Úteis.

No, it’s not an escape room. It is “How to Draw a Naked Daughter,” a creation that “seeks to explore the possibilities of written words, reading aloud, and graphic design as tools of performative expressiveness,” in the words of Carlos Costa, artistic director of the company, which is celebrating 30 years in support of national culture.

Centred on analyzing a (bio)graphic work by an international author, it seeks to tread the theme of the relationship between enjoying art and judging the character of the artist. Or, in another way, to walk a “linear view of human life that can unveil its multidimensional complexity.” From light to shadow, from ideas to actions. Public, known, private, unknown.

All this anticipating that “different audiences will provide different dynamics,” believes Jorge Palinhos, the author of the text, and that creating these communities, gathered with a unique objective, “will paradoxically provide distinct organics,” “entities filled with particularities” among themselves. Otherwise, the Visões Úteis performance would not also shine a spotlight on the theme of the relationship between the enjoyment of art and the judgment of the artist’s character, as the same author emphasizes.

“How to Draw a Naked Daughter” begins as a creative residency in Sintra (from September 16 to 20), on the occasion of Muscarium – Festival of Performative Arts, created by the Sintra theatre company Teatromosca, but the absolute premiere takes place in Famalicão (Casa das Artes) on October 10 and 11, at 9:30 PM. In Porto, it is currently scheduled for the MIRA space, from October 16 to 18, at 7:00 PM, and on the 19th, at 5:00 PM. The creation then travels to Athens (Greece) for a performance at 1927 Art Space, on November 22 and 23. On March 15, 2025, it arrives at the Municipal Theater of Bragança.

“We will be facing what we call typographic pan dramaturgy, where the text becomes a substitute for any image, functioning as an antidote and questioning the empire of the image,” explains Carlos Costa.

The direction of “How to Draw a Naked Daughter” belongs to Jorge Palinhos and involves the usual collaborations of Ana Vitorino, Inês de Carvalho, Pedro Correia, Sara Allen, and Vasco Zentzua, in co-production with Casa das Artes de Famalicão and Teatro Municipal de Bragança.

“How much of us remains in what we do? We spend a good part of our lives anxious – almost always unnecessarily – about how others will judge or remember what we do. We value those who do and those who create, in the faith that the gesture of transforming the world is reserved for heroes and saints. But in a time when saints and heroes are increasingly suspect, what to do with the legacy of those who are no longer here to justify or defend themselves? What to do with the artworks of those who lived in another time but also shaped the time we live in today?” questions the synopsis of the work.

The (first) answers will begin to emerge starting October 10.

“How to Draw a Naked Daughter” – Schedule:

• September 16 – 20 – Creative residency in Sintra (Muscarium / Teatromosca)
• October 10 and 11 – Absolute premiere in Famalicão, at Casa das Artes, at 9:30 PM.
• October 16 – 19 – Premiere in Porto (MIRA space); October 16, 17 and 18 (at 7:00 PM) and 19 (at 5:00 PM)
• November 22 and 23 – Premiere in Athens (Greece), 1927 Art Space
• March 15, 2025 – Teatro Municipal de Bragança

“How to Draw a Naked Daughter” – Artistic and Technical Information:

Direction and text – Jorge Palinhos Co-creation and interpretation – Ana Vitorino Scenic and fólico space – Inês de Carvalho Design and graphic illustration – Sara Allen Light design – Pedro Correia Soundtrack – Vasco Zentzua Production coordination – Cláudia Alfaiate Accounting – Helena Madeira Support for creation in residency – teatromosca/MUSCARIUM Production – Visões Úteis, in co-production with Casa das Artes de Vila Nova de Famalicão and Teatro Municipal de Bragança

About Visões Úteis:

Visões Úteis is an artistic project based in Porto, founded in 1994. The theatre was the root of a constant and intense activity that quickly expanded to other areas of the performing arts. In recognition of its artistic action with diverse audiences, the collective received the Gold Medal of Cultural Merit from the City of Porto in 2001. The group’s scope extends to a range of projects, parallel to the creation and itinerancy of performances, which have always expressed the desire to confront other areas and audiences distant from artistic production. Visões Úteis is a member of PLATEIA – Association of Professionals of the Scenic Arts, IETM – International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, APCEN – Portuguese Association of Scenography, and the Anna Lindh Foundation.

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