The Já international theatre company was formally established in July “with the aim of bringing top-quality theatre, in English, to Lisbon.”
It was founded by four theatre aficionados, Tania Kumeda, Margarida Rocha, Dan Cotterall and Suresh Nampuri, who all hail from different countries but share the common goal of wanting to “innovate and produce immersive theatre that challenges and pushes the definitions of genre-labelling, and to experiment with the limits of the theatrical form itself.”
After the University of Oxford, Daniel Cotterall acted in Shakespeare and Beckett productions in China.
From Kyiv, Tania Kumeda brings her deep understanding of Chekhov and Stanislavsky. With a profound aversion to what she calls “plastic theatre”, Tania “probes the works she directs with a keen eye, a keen ear and without inhibition”. Margarida Melo topped her Literature and Drama studies at the National Conservatory with an MA at King’s College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, while “wandering Ragamuffin” Suresh Nampuri’s twin loves are science and theatre.
In comments to The Portugal News, Suresh Nampuri, who has directorial and thespian training and experience in various countries, recalls how a meeting at another production led to the founding of Já.
“We have spent a lot of our lives doing theatre, constructing theatrical events and watching it”, he explains, adding: “We realised we were ready to make bold theatrical choices which would harken to the increasingly global and cosmopolitan anglophile audience mindset in Lisbon that demanded more from a narrative than just classical interpretations. To this end, we set up our theatrical collective.”
Já International Theatre is marking its arrival on the capital’s arts scene with its first show RED; a double bill comprising two one-act plays: ‘A Florentine Tragedy’ by Oscar Wilde, followed by ‘The Bear’ by Anton Chekhov.
“The idea is to eventually create a performance space where we can host various creative events”, Suresh elaborates.
The groups says it has received “immense support and encouragement from all the artists we know of as well as organisations” including the long-established Lisbon Players, which celebrated their 70th anniversary in July this year, and Lisbon Council, through an initiative “to provide cheap theatrical rehearsal spaces for performers.”
RED premiers on 22 November and runs until 26 November at the Teatro do Bairro in Chiado, Lisbon.
For more information, see: www.jait.pt.