No More Springs

Café-theatre cycle created by Ivo Bastos, Ricardo Alves and Rodrigo Santos, by Teatro da Palmilha Dentada and Teatro Nacional São João. The page identifies the cycle as "café-teatro" and presents it in the Salão Nobre of Teatro São João.

Today 8 The first time 12 Repertory(ies): Conferences 16 New inclusion and social responsibility projects 18 Programming calendar inside and outside doors 20 Kings' Concerts 34 No More Springs 36 Sentinelles 38 Class Enemy 40 The End 42 Amor de Perdição 46 A Poet in the Form of Like This 48 False True Stories: A Pina Collage 50 Hamlet Am I 56 This Is a Genuine Hitler 58 Bérénice 60 Visitações: Manuel António Pina 64 MUSICAL-MENTE 66 Buchettino 68 FITEI at TNSJ 74 There Is Something About to Happen 78 Invisible Places 80 The Artistic Schools at TNSJ 82 The Kiss on the Asphalt 84 Voice Festival 90 Territory IX 92 Educational Center 94 World Theatre Day/ Masked Ball 100 The King of Austria 101 Documentation Center 102 Readings at the Monastery 104 Dramatic Texts Collection 106 Stacker Collection 108 Conversations with Marta 110 Accessibility + Social Tickets/Solidarity Premiere 112 Guided Tours 114 Ubu Bar 116 Subscriptions 118 Próspero Card + TNSJ Friend Card + Theatre and Dance Schools Card 120 Service and Ticket Office 121 TNSJ technical sheet 123 Patrons BPI/Fundação “la Caixa” 126

Today, on the São João stage, Carlos Pimenta and the Ensemble rehearse The End, by António Patrício; in the Salão Nobre, Palmilha Dentada is finishing a new café-theatre show; in the White Room, a technical meeting is being held to prepare A Garota Não's concert; at Teatro Carlos Alberto, the set of Amor de Perdição directed by Maria João Vicente is being unloaded and assembled; in the rehearsal room, it is the day of the Theatre Clubs promoted by the Educational Center, after an intense weekend with Atelier 200 at the Soares dos Reis Artistic School; in a room lent by the legendary Clube Fenianos Portuenses, Victor Hugo Pontes directs the rehearsal of False True Stories, with our actors and the singing and dancing words of Manuel António Pina; at the Monastery of São Bento da Vitória, there is a works meeting with designers, contractor, works supervisor and the TNSJ Buildings and Maintenance team. Today, we contact the final candidates in the competition for the coordination of our Educational Center, after the jury's decision; we close the dossier with the activity proposal for the Fundación “la Caixa”, which includes new social responsibility projects; we receive the audience figures for Class Enemy, which sold out TeCA for two short weeks; we meet with our colleagues from DGArtes to deal with the award ceremony of the Guillermo Heras Prize to Mário Moutinho; we consider the application of a project with people experiencing homelessness to a social innovation funding line; we decide to acquire the slightly exorbitant transatlantic trips so that biographer Ruy Castro can speak to us live about Nelson Rodrigues (videoconference? "The theatre is shamelessly body," argues Eric Bentley); we assess, at a time when we are deprived of the breadth of our Benedictine monument, the lending of rehearsal spaces to independent companies and production structures; as for me, I still fulfill an ancient tradition: sketching—late and at odd hours—the text for the opening of this agenda. PEDRO SOBRADO Chairman of the Board of Directors PROGRAMMING JAN—JUL 2026  9 Today

A single day lived from within São João allows us to see almost the entire season – and what is seen from the administration is often limited. Today, an entire team, spread across several buildings – ours and others, lent by institutional road companions, such as the Fenianos or the Porto Historic Center Parish Union –, is collectively involved in the development of the activity we present, so well written and designed in this programming booklet: from the most circumspect Accounting and Public Procurement departments to the agitators of Communication, passing through the machine room that is the small but great Production team or the elite troop of the Stage. Some have just landed on this star with its own light, as is the case with some performers in our new production; others are saying goodbye after many years together, leaving for the private sector. (Today, we are preparing the internal communication of Abílio Barbosa's departure, an electrician who arrived here 25 years ago.) Today, all I had to begin this text was a famous passage by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Pull your chair up to the edge of the precipice and I'll tell you a story.” Used and abused in creative writing workshops for aspiring writers, the phrase seems to sum up the condition of theatre today: the world on the brink of the abyss, and us telling stories. The formulation also evokes that particular combination of intimacy and danger that theatre induces. We invite our fellow citizens to settle comfortably into the seats of TNSJ's air-conditioned halls to hear false true stories and, sotto voce, the sound of a siren. If we are on the edge of the precipice, our attention increases and sharpens. Intimacy is forged in risk. Welcome, today and always. 10  TEATRO NACIONAL SÃO JOÃO

The first time I entered this theatre was on 24 October 1996. I sat in the 2nd balcony, seat C21, to see The Great Theatre of the World. I remember thinking: “This really is the greatest theatre in the world.” Since then, whenever I entered here as a spectator, I brought with me that awe – and the unconfessed desire to one day be part of this house. However, I never really thought I would become its artistic director. Perhaps I imagined that could happen when I was older. Between my first time in this theatre and today, everything happened quickly. So quickly that it feels like it was yesterday. At the same