Teatro Variedades celebrates 50 years of career of Rita Ribeiro
The actress Rita Ribeiro celebrates 50 years of career at Teatro Variedades, in Parque Mayer. In the play, Rita, also a singer, director, and producer, revisits her life journey through a powerful monologue that explores her evolution as a woman, artist, and human being.
This is yet another significant show to see at Teatro Variedades, a venue under the auspices of LISBOA CULTURA that reopened to the public at the beginning of October, after three decades of closure.
With poetic and evocative language, in the play Rita, which will be on stage between November 6 and 17, Rita Ribeiro reflects on the various phases of her life, from fear to fulfilment, highlighting the complexity of female identity.
This is the third show that Teatro Variedades presented since reopening, following Entraria Nesta Sala and The Swimming Pool Party, directed by Ricardo Neves-Neves, which debuted at the new venue and was on stage until October 27.
“Doing this show – Rita – is talking about my professional life, but also my personal life. And to do it at Teatro Variedades, at the new Teatro Variedades… Even though it is ‘new’ it has all the energy of the old – where I did so many works, where my mother debuted, where I told my father I was going to be a grandmother – anyway, this space is all very connected to my entire life. It is very significant, there would be no better place to do this show that talks about me, about all the complicity I had with the audience during these 50 years and about the loyalty the audience had for me. There certainly would be no better place to do this show than at Teatro Variedades,” emphasizes actress Rita Ribeiro.
Pedro Moreira, President of the Board of Directors of Egeac/LISBOA CULTURA, highlights that “the dynamism of this new performance space in Lisbon is excellent news for the city and the cultural offerings of the capital. Hosting the celebration of Rita Ribeiro’s 50-year career at Teatro Variedades, an artist with a remarkable trajectory, is a huge source of pride and happiness.”
Teatro Variedades has a long history in the city of Lisbon and an iconic connection to revue theatre. It was inaugurated on July 8, 1926 (designed by architect Urbano de Castro) with the revue show “Pó de Arroz” and has been the venue for great successes, with prominent casts including Beatriz Costa, Mirita Casimiro, and Vasco Santana.
It was the second performance building in the Parque Mayer complex, which was very popular in Lisbon in the past. Shows were still held there until the 1990s (in 1992 it hosted the recording of the weekly RTP1 program “A Grande Noite,” directed by Filipe La Féria).
The intervention carried out at Variedades, now under the management of LISBOA CULTURA and conducted by Lisboa Ocidental SRU, sought to preserve the glamour and identity of the theatre and to revitalize it as an entertainment centre adapted to contemporary legal and technical demands.
The project, designed by architect Manuel Aires Mateus, focused on constructive simplicity and rehabilitated the main elements that characterize the building – the portico, the foyer, the auditorium, and the stage – completing it with a new functional surround, particularly through the construction of new access and circulation spaces between floors, support and service areas, and technical facilities.
The “new” Teatro Variedades has about 300 seats – with chairs designed by architect Manuel Aires Mateus – distributed throughout the main hall, with the construction of a bench, boxes on the balcony level, and boxes on the sides of the auditorium. The stage retains its original dimensions (7.90m deep and 16.80m wide between walls, with an extension of about 3m from the proscenium).
In addition to strengthening the offerings for performing arts, this theatre will provide a new concept as a welcoming and presentation space for independent productions and for companies that do not have their own venues.
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.
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