Tiago Torres da Silva premieres “The Imitation of Birds” in Varieties

ANDm interview to the agency Lusa, Torres da Silva, who also staged, said he had succeeded, with “The Imitation of Birds”, something that “he had not yet achieved in another text”: “May the characters be almost always in two planes, saying one thing and living another. So the audience is always in a doubt, if the truth is what [the character] is saying or if that’s what he’s living, and that’s a little bit what we’re living in life”.

“ I feel that this text speaks a lot of the current times with the speed at which all this is going and how people feel lost, not knowing what to do, always having to show success, building things for social networks”, he added.

For the poet and playwright, in today’s society, “it seems that idleness, boredom no longer exists”: “And boredom is the father of many good things. Also many bad things, but he is the father of many good things, many creative things”.

Referring to the duality of the characters, who say one thing and live another, Torres da Silva recognized that the dramaturgical situation “has roots in [Anton] Chekhov”, author of “Uncle Vânia” and “The Seagull”.

“The Imitation of Birds” “has many roots in Chekhov, which is the first [dramaturist] that tells us that characters may be lying,” said the author.

“There are times when the characters are clearly lying to save others, and the public knows that they are lying, but they also know that they cannot stop lying.”.

One of the characters, young Philip, says at some point that he has a passion for one of the characters d’A Gull”.

“ A connection to Chekhov completely assumed. And part of a phrase from Nina’s great monologue [one of the characters of The Seagull], who says he realized that what matters is not success, nor glory, nor applause, none of it. All that matters is to hold on. It's holding. It's holding. There are some translations that say that what matters is to move forward, to support, but the idea is that it is not success” that tells Lusa Torres da Silva. And he continued: “What brings us is resilience, the ability to reinvent ourselves, to pass over failures and successes without it changing us greatly.”.

The play also addresses “the loneliness of the elders”, one of the themes dear to the author. “We live more and more, medicine prolongs life, but society does not find a way to make these last years of people valid.”.

At the same time, “there is a huge rise in suicide among young people, because they do not know what to do”. “They are very lost. There are many ‘sites’ on the ‘dark web’ to pose challenges that can end in death. How did generations, who are my generation, have to get used to it?” asked the author of 56 years.

“ It was so much change, so much change. I think my generation will be studied as those who had to adapt more ", said.

One of the older characters is played by actress Lydia Franco, who has known her for a long time and well. “It is a very, very human character and perhaps, despite the loneliness in which she lives, the youngest of the three”.

Tiago Torres da Silva admits that the play is in contracycle with the current theatrical panorama. “It’s falling into disuse, the theater with characters, with plot, in which a story is told”.

“ But I like to tell stories and I like to be told stories, so this is the theater I will continue to do.”.

“ I care about everything, it's maybe my worst flaw. I have many friends, much younger. I get along with a generation that's gonna be my nephews', 20-something people. And I really like to hear what they have to say. And it's funny, because when I was 20, my friends were much older. Now it seems that the roles are inverting”, he said.

“ I think the world is going through a very strange moment. But when a world gets too unbalanced on one side, it has to get too unbalanced on the other, to come back. Like a pendulum, then back downtown. And this show talks about it, talks about returning to the center ", said.

The gender issue that he addressed, among others, in the play “Glory Hole” (2025), “is underlying the story that touches gender, in what we talk about today, what we can and cannot do,” he said.

“ The young man who [in the play] is an actor and wants to do Nina in the theater, cannot because he is a man. So these gender issues are also addressed. We had a Tom Hanks apologize for doing the [film] ‘Philadelphia’ [ Jonathan Demme, 1993], for not being homosexual. One of the biggest nonsense I've ever heard. So homosexual actors will never be able to do Hamlet again.”.

“ I already put an actor playing tree in a play, and I think the actor is the one that can be everything ", continued. “Therefore, these questions are there [in the piece], but it is a magma that is underlying [the text]. It is not the main theme”.

Torres da Silva considers “The Imitation of Birds” a text “very confessional”. “So I needed actors with whom I had worked hard to get to know their processes and how far they could go.”.

“I’ve already directed the three actors who will do the show”, Lídia Franco, Baltasar Marçal and Tiago Fernandes. “I know the paths that each person can take to reach those characters.”.

“Tiago Fernandes already drove it in the ‘Noise of Lights’, in ‘In Up Trees’. With Baltasar Marçal I have been working a lot lately, and this piece came from a challenge of his, who told me I would like to speak in Russian”.

For the author, “acting and writing go together”. “I don’t know how to separate one thing from the other, and I love seeing other feelings of my texts.”.

The piece is about 80 minutes old and “overtakes the mere generational conflict”. “In the background is the story of three generations – grandmother, son and grandson –, and the secrets that all families have, which are not said, gradually emerge, [...]. And we see the lie becoming true, a very important matter today”.

The author considers that “the theater will gain a lot of strength because it is what is happening ahead”, as opposed to “fake news” (false news).

“I want to take out the microphones more and more, remove everything that is technology to get the truth of the actor talking to the public.”.

The sets and costumes are by Hugo F. Matos, the video is by Aurélio Vasques and the dramaturgy of Maria Helena Melim, people of his “artistic family nucleus”.

“ It had to have people who went to this depth that I seek with this text ", finished Tiago Torres da Silva.

“The Imitation of Birds” is on the scene until October 25.