SET THE TABLE is a research of stories lived by women. A group of women come together to set a table, to build a table, to be a landscape-table for a meeting. Each part of this table is a piece of a puzzle with centuries of untold stories, and words to be named: hunger, home, meeting, work, intimacy, power, future and so many others. How many stories are stored within the precise way that a body organizes itself, or is organized, to eat? A table is an organic body. A mutant piece of furniture. An UFO on the living room carpet.

Direction Cristina Carvalhal and Raquel André
Performers Catarina Vieira, Cristina Carvalhal, Gisela Casimiro, Keli Freitas, Raquel André
Scenography and costume design Sara Franqueira
Light designer Carolina Caramelo
Sound designer Odete
Documentary film Rita M. Pestana
Photography Vera Marmelo
Production Sofia Bernardo
Production assistant Leonor Buescu
Co-production Causas Comuns and Be SpectACTive! Partners ArtemRede – Marvila Library – CML (Portugal), BUDA (Kortrijk, Belgium), Domino (Zagreb, Croatia) and Radu Stanca National Theater (Sibiu, Romania).

The Artists

Cristina Carvalhal, Actress, director and pedagogue. With a degree in Theater and Education from Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, she also studied with Eimuntas Nekrosius andbKristian Lupa, among others. She is founder and artistic director of Causas Comuns, a performing arts company, since 2004.

Raquel André, artist, performer and actress. Master in Performing Arts at UFRJ – Rio. Author and creator of Colecção de Pessoas, a project that since 2014, has been presented in multiple venues in the world with shows, exhibitions, conferences, a book, online projects and performances.

Catarina Vieira, artist and performer in Theater, Performance and Video. She created her first solo work, Chego sempre atrasada aos funerais importantes, at Teatro Maria Matos (2018). Directs Matéria (2019), an open studio for sharing artistic practices.

Keli Freitas, artist, playwriter and actress. Graduated in Literature at PUC – Rio and Master in Portuguese Studies at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Osmarina Pernambuco não consegue esquecer, her most recent creation, premiered at Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in November 2019. Sara Franqueira. With a Degree in Architecture, Master in Theater Studies and PhD student at Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, she is also a researcher in the field of contemporary scenography and professor of Set Design Theory and History at ESTC. She collaborates regularly in performing arts projects conceiving scenic spaces.

Causas Comuns is a performing arts Company whose main objectives are the creation and presentation of contemporary arts performances. It seeks to promote the regular contact of audiences with classic and contemporary works of theater, enhancing the Portuguese dramaturgy; Develop the participation of different audiences on culture, ensuring a physical, social and economic access; Promote itinerancy, has a contribute to the diversity and decentralization of the cultural offer and to the correction of asymmetries in access to cultural creation; Encourage the continuous training of the artistic and technical staff involved in its activity, with the purpose of promote the qualification of professionals in the arts and encourage good practices of employability and sustainability. It presents itself as a platform for independent artists and regular collaborators, which aims to allow the circulation of complicity, skills and knowledge. Joining in its artistic teams, professionals of recognized merit with new performers, while seeks to promote a “contamination” between generations, aiming for innovation, coherence and excellency of its activities, and intervening in a local, regional or national scope. In addition to Portugal, has also presented performances in Finland, Chile, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Set the table is a medium scale production of the Be SpectACTive! project.