Portuguese play about killing fascists sparks protests across Europe, now heading to London
Tiago Rodrigues's play 'Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists' has provoked intense audience reactions, including jeers, walkouts, and stage invasions, from Portugal to Germany. The play's climax features a far-right politician's uninterrupted victory speech, which has triggered violent responses. It will be performed at London's National Theatre next month, raising questions about British audience reactions.
The play premiered in September 2020 in Guimarães, Portugal, and is rooted in the 1954 killing of Catarina Eufémia, a striking farmworker shot by police under the Salazar dictatorship. Rodrigues reports that across roughly 200 performances, only a handful of audiences have sat through the final speech in silence, with interventions ranging from anthem-singing to physical attempts to reach the actor.
Protests have come from both ends of the political spectrum. Left-leaning audiences in Portugal, Italy, and elsewhere have tried to drown out the actor's words with revolutionary songs, while the Brothers of Italy party, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, demanded the play's removal from Rome's programme. Rodrigues describes the volatile reactions as "typical" rather than exceptional.
The play's repeated ability to provoke audiences may signal how deeply polarized European societies have become over far-right politics, with art functioning as a flashpoint for real-world tensions. British viewers at the National Theatre could respond similarly, potentially reigniting public debates about whether theatre should provoke or comfort, and where the line falls between dramatic fiction and political reality. Such reactions may also influence how theatres elsewhere approach programming politically charged works.