This show had as its starting point the personification of Santa Claus in the context of shopping mall animations that I underwent between 2011 and 2013. There arose the idea of writing a lie that would turn inside out what we take as the truth of what happens during Christmas. A huge lie to be told from a scenic space onto an audience. To use the theater to reveal an impressive truth. And make the impossible happen. Santa Claus. Santa Claus appearing before an adult, and certainly nonbelieving audience. An audience that is, nonetheless, compelled to believe exactly because it is facing a stage. Let’s be fair, precisely the same happens in many of our homes, every evening of the 24th of December, when someone disguised as Santa Claus makes a fleeting appearance to drop gifts by the tree. Children believe. Adults don’t. Or so they pretend. And almost believe. Of course, the home stage does exalt and convince. The theater stage, though, is expected to do it even more. Because it magnifies everything. Here Santa Claus bursts in through the eyes and the ears of those attending. He bursts also through their skin – there are even those unwary, fortunate ones that are awarded kisses. Many. Yes. Yes. And no. It is not the people who allow themselves to be replaced by a stranger with a fake beard and a familiar face, to pretend they have nothing to do with the gifts, subtracting themselves from the gratitude and the kisses of those who receive them. It’s quite the opposite. It is Santa Claus who, for spending the whole year withdrawn at the North Pole manufacturing the presents, gives each one the opportunity to claim for oneself the paternity of the gift. Of course. And of course not. Santa Claus is not around. He never is. But he exists. In this theater, he does. At least that’s what the entirety of his onstage, actor’s body wants to prove. Until the end of the show, he is in debt to anyone who has paid a ticket and watches him. But it’s really him, the actor Santa Claus. The authentic. The one to whom we owe all the presents and who got lost in the North Pole and got estranged from himself. Here he comes, now, to explain and offer himself in gift.
Hi, I AM SANTA CLAUS
Tiago Barbosa
Directing, text and performance by Tiago Barbosa
Light and sound design Gonçalo Alegria
Costume designer Carlota Lagido
Props Tiago Barbosa and Carlota Lagido
Occasional assistance Nuno Gil, Carlos Alves, Vera Mantero
Ticket seller
Residencies ZDB / NEGÓCIO, Companhia Olga Roriz, O Rumo do Fumo, Les Bains
Production ZDB 2018 (ZDB is funded by República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direção-Geral das Artes)
Duration 75m
Age rating > 12
Acknowledgments Pedro Figueiredo, Dinarte Branco, Daniela Siragusa, Ana Torres, Berma, Caixa – Gestão, Ana Bigotte, Lígia Soares, Miguel Carneiro, Miguel Pereira, Vera Mantero, Bruno Humberto and Zaratan.
Translation Miguel Cardoso
Tiago Barbosa
Graduated in Theater Acting at Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. Worked as an actor and a performer in theater and dance shows by directors such as Rui Catalão, Miguel Castro Caldas, Gustavo Ciríaco, Nuno Gil, Jorge Andrade and Miguel Pereira, Ainhoa Vidal, Paula Sá Nogueira and André Godinho, Maria Gil, Dinarte Branco and Tiago Nogueira, Martim Pedroso, Mónica Calle, Bernard Sobel, Miguel Loureiro, Lúcia Sigalho, Francisco Alves, João Lourenço, Rita Natálio, Joclécio Azevedo, Vítor Hugo Pontes, Inês Jacques, António Pires, Catalina Buzoianu, Jorge Silva Melo, Adelino Tavares, Paulo Lages, Renata Portas, Marcos Barbosa and Edward Fão, among others. Took part in fictional series for television and has acted in several feature films directed by Sandro Aguilar, Francisco Manso, Manuel Prada and Patrick Mendes, among others. Directed and acted on “A Grande Sombra Loira”, a show based on Florbela Espanca’s sonnets, and on “OLÁ, EU SOU O PAI NATAL”, for which he also penned the text. Took part in the Science and Art project “Raízes da Curiosidade” (Fábrica das Artes/CCB) and is an associate artist of Galeria Zé dos Bois.
