Topografia do Sonho

TOPOGRAFIA DO SONHO (TOPOGRAPHY OF THE DREAM) is a theatrical manifesto born out of the tension between two natures: the imposing and concrete nature of the Trás-os-Montes landscape and the turbulent and changing human nature of adolescence. Part of the larger project ‘Rota do Sentir’ (Route of Feeling), this will be an artistic object constructed with adolescents from the Montalegre council that rejects a condescending view of youth and instead amplifies their cry. Scheduled to premiere in December 2026 at the Montalegre Multipurpose Pavilion, the show occupies a vast physical and symbolic scale, being built from a biographical collection and informal conversations with these young people, in addition to their direct participation in the show, as well as in relation to the Serra do Gerês, especially in the visual (set design and video) and sound dimensions of the show.

The dramatic axis is based on a homonymous and conflicting relationship. On the one hand, there is “natural nature” — the overwhelming landscape of the Peneda-Gerês Natural Park. On the other, the passion and desire of those who grow up in this territory. If, on the one hand, we are born into an environment that precedes us and to which we must adapt, on the other, adolescence ushers in doubt: do we construct our own reality, or is reality violently imposed upon us?

TOPOGRAFIA DO SONHO exposes the inevitable depression that arises in the gap between becoming (who one wants to be) and duty (what one must produce). It is a tribute to error and guiltless passion in a culture that demonises or capitalises on them. On stage, the performers — a mixed cast of professionals and young non-professionals — reclaim the art of desire as humanity's protest against the tyranny of results. The show acts as an inverted mirror pointed equally at the adult audience: the youthful malaise presented here is directly linked to the world that adults (their parents and grandparents) have built — or allowed to be built. The figure of the parents is a ghostly and constant presence; they are the visible face of a schematic and already past reality.

Although starring teenagers, we intend for this show to speak about the universal human condition. We want this narrative to resonate with the same violence and clarity in a 16-year-old viewer as in a 60-year-old. By calling on family and school as places of tension, TOPOGRAFIA DO SONHO asks what is the fair measure of our adaptation to reality. In order to re-enchant ourselves with the world, perhaps we first need to become disenchanted. It is in this labyrinth that this project moves: between the desire to belong and the need to escape, seeking, in the green and watery metaphor of the mountains, not a picture-postcard landscape, but a possible answer to the natural and original mystery: that of existence.

A show directed and written by Sílvio Vieira, and produced by Daniela Leitão. Rafael dos Santos will be responsible for set design, Luís Silva for lighting design, and Miguel De for sound and video. A co-production between Rota do Sentir and outro Associação Cultural.