Grade 9 Portuguese class and a trip to "hell"

Grade 9 Portuguese Native Language students went to the theater to deepen their study of “Auto da Barca do Inferno” (The Ship of Hell) by Gil Vicente. Presented for the first time in the 1500s, the theater company “O Sonho” reimagined parts of it to better suit nowadays students. Here are some comments from our 9^th graders, who truly enjoyed the play:

The characters moved across stage and were manipulated by the Devil, in a unique way. In each character movement you could recognized the characteristics that made them special.

The funniest parts were the interactions between actors and audience. I think that after the Fool entered the play starter to get more amusing, because he used contemporary references that you can relate to, even though this play is from the XVI century.

The “O Sonho” theater company is composed for half a dozen energetic actors. Even if the cast was only made up of six actors that had to represent multiple characters, the group succeeded in recreating “Auto da Barca do Inferno”. The troupe excelled in incarnated the different characteristics, movements, and way of speaking of each character. Plus, their interaction with the audience kept us involved and caused a lot of laughter.