Luís Miguel Cintra has confirmed the end of the company
The Cornucópia Theatre will close doors on Saturday, 17 December, 43 years after the company was founded – by Jorge Silva Melo and Luís Miguel Cintra. To this day, is marked the launch of the second volume of the book Teatro da Cornucópia – Shows from 2002 to 2016 and a recital with poems of the French Guillaume Apollinaire. Then, the viewers will be invited to discuss the route of the company, which was founded in 1973 and since 1975 had headquarters in the Theatre of Bairro Alto.
The news of the shutdown, advanced by the Antenna 1, it was confirmed to the DN by Luís Miguel Cintra, that in 2015, walked away from the stage, for health reasons, but continued to divide the artistic direction of the company with the scenographer Cristina Reis.
The decision was not taken “suddenly”, but it came in the wake of successive cuts in the grants – “which were already insufficient,” says Luís Miguel Cintra – and that ensured the functioning of the company. With more than a dozen employees, the Cornucopia could continue to operate, but the biggest concern of the direction was not dececionar the public. “It would not be possible for us to change now head and start to work as a company to start”, explained the artistic director.
When the Cornucopia did 40 years ago, the actor and director told DN: “I Admit that there are other structures that can work with much less money and with ways of working which result in less spending, we can’t. For now, there is an important thing for us that has always been the house, the room, and that other structures do not have, unfortunately for them, sure, because it is an instrument of extremely important work, but that means many expenses. And above all there was another thing: the creation of an expectation or a desire, that was in some way stimulated by the State, the company’s development, become more and more a company is stable, fixed, public utility. And then there was a take of the carpet very, very violent, very suddenly.”
This Friday, the day that it was announced the closing of the Cornucopia, Luís Miguel Cintra repeated: “there is a tiredness of fighting against the situation. It’s terrible, but we can’t complain all the time”. The order of the company, a guarantor, has been spoken long ago and all those involved in the Cornucopia were aware of the difficulties. “Our situation is not, of course, a company that sustains itself”, with the choke to tighten up due to the “gigantism of the bureaucracy.”
Rejecting the “superficiality in the approach to the proposed theatre, for the actor, keep the Cornucopia in operation would be “lack of respect for the public”. The dramaturgy notes Cintra, may not be a product of immediate consumption, is an activity of thought about our existence”. In an interview with the DN, published in August of last year, developed this point of view: “The theatre is a way of perceiving things and of living. Through the parts and of the texts that come to us at hand and that we were working on, we’re going to talking about, thinking about, reading things that come by the way. And to think the one point that involves the own body.”
in This same conversation, in which revealed to suffer from Parkinson’s disease, Luís Miguel Cintra, it was a statement of the serious warning made: questioned if the Cornucopia would continue, replied: “Not can not and must not continue a long time. He always had a consistency and a quality that is very large. It costs me to make a reduction of quality that necessarily will happen”.
The fall of the cloth, the artistic director of the Cornucopia ensures that the pride of the work developed over the last decades, remains, and that the quality of what is put on the scene speaks for itself: “The Cornucopia marked all that have passed through here,” he says.
The 67-year-old, however, Luís Miguel Cintra does not reject the new start, “as if we were beginners,” but in a project that is already far from what it was the Cornucopia. “Don’t want to say that now is the to look at the sky, waiting to die.”
Brief history of the Cornucopia
The Cornucópia Theatre was founded in 1973: the 13 of October, in the Theatre Laura Alves, premiered the first piece, The Misanthrope of Moliere, with the two founders in the cast – Jorge Silva Melo and Luís Miguel Cintra. Participated still Wisteria Quartin, Dalila Rocha, Raquel Maria, Filipe La Féria, Orlando Costa, Luís Lima Barreto, and Carlos Fernando.
Until the 25th of April of 1974 she worked without its own headquarters, with the support of grants infrequent of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
Since 1975, is headquartered in the Theater District: the space was lent by the owner to the company, through the then secretary of State for Culture, João de Freitas Branco. In the last decades, it has staged the works of distinguished authors, from Shakespeare to Pirandello, passing by Sophocles or Ibsen.
In 1979, Jorge Silva Melo signs the last stagings in the Cornucopia. He founded the Artists United in 1995.
Since 1990, the Cornucopia wanted to address some of the playwrights writing the most radical of the TWENTIETH century: Beckett, Orton, Botho Strauss, P. Handke, Edward Bond, Genet, Gertrude Stein, or Brecht. Did the world premiere of two texts: Paste Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, in 2002, and The Chair of Edward Bond, in 2005.
In recent years, it has established co-productions with the National Theatre S. Joao, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, Teatro Nacional S. Carlos, Teatro Municipal de Almada, or the Teatro Municipal São Luiz.
In 2015, after the last representation of Hamlet on the stage of the Theater District, Luís Miguel Cintra, which protagonizara many of the shows at the Cornucopia, announces the withdrawal of the venues, but ensuring that it would continue to enact and direct the company.
the Reaction of the Ministry of Culture
The Ministry of Culture “has closely followed the situation of the Teatro da Cornucópia, and regrets the closure of one of the structures of the most important theatre in the history of Portuguese theatre”, reads a note sent to the media. “Your work, your creations and your performances have been, since 1973 until today, a reference to actors, directors, and professionals in the area of the theatre, and, of course, also to the public.”
The Teatro da Cornucópia has a support of the State through the Directorate-General for Arts (DGArtes) and received this year 309,6 thousand euros, in the form of subsidy that is given to four years. Among the 127 structures with support multi-year, this is the one that receives the support is more significant, the pair of other structures with more than 40 years as the Theater, The Band, the Theatre Company of Almada, or Acert, Tondela.
at This time, underlines the Ministry of Culture, “the Cornucopia if you wanted to continue your activity, you can renew your support with the DGArtes until 28 December, provided that you have a plan of activity”. The Government, he expressed willingness to “work together to make this closure happen in the best way, out of a profound recognition of and respect for historical heritage – tangible and intangible – that the company leaves it to the Portuguese theatre”, explains the press release.
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