Directed by João Mota, "23 seconds" is an unpublished text, based on true facts, by Miguel Falcão, a young playwright that João Mota, artistic director of the company based in Praça de Espanha, in Lisbon, has known since the author was his student at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, said João Mota, in an interview with Lusa.

As the 50th anniversary of April 25th and the 52nd anniversary of the company's foundation are being celebrated, "there is nothing better" to celebrate the two anniversaries than "a Portuguese play, by a young author, that talks about something very important".

The play talks about the dictatorship of the Estado Novo and the times before April 25th, observed João Mota, adding that it is an era that Comuna "knows very well how it was", since it is two years older than April 25th, 1974.

"We talk a lot about April 25th, sometimes, but we forget what came before", or "everyone knows what fascism and Salazar were, but they forget those who really fought against the dictatorship" of Estado Novo, he stressed.

The men and women who had to flee Portugal are talked about -- "what happened to Mário Soares himself, who had to leave" -- but little is said about those who stayed and fought, considered the stage director.

Men and women "imprisoned and tortured" for reasons as simple as belonging to a union or listening to a forbidden radio station. Reasons dealt with in "23 seconds", which "reports an escape, with personal data of the prisoners".

Without specifying the prison of Forte de Peniche, because he cannot "forget the one in Caldas da Rainha, the Aljube, in Lisbon" or "the Tarrafal, in Cape Verde", João Mota also stressed the importance of the text putting on stage five political prisoners, all with different personalities and life stories.

A member of a political party, a miner, a prisoner for having read poetry, another for having listened to a forbidden radio station, and another who after being widowed took part in a strike where the demonstrators held a sign that read "Fome, fome" are the five protagonists of the play.

Two guards and a narrator, granddaughter of one of the prisoners in the play and who recalls what she heard her grandfather tell about the time in prison, in the early 1950s, complete the characters of "23 seconds".

The action of "23 seconds" takes place in 'flashback' and, as the narrator remembers the stories her grandfather told her, she unravels them on stage.

In addition to the memory of the granddaughter, "who still lives today with the shadow and the weight of what her grandfather told her", there are also photographs that portray the moments to which the action refers, said João Mota.

"The few memories that exist today among the youngest of before April 25th are that more than three people could not get together to talk, there was a license to use a lighter and whoever did not have it and was caught was arrested, in the theater we had no freedom and there was enormous censorship... But nobody talks about the prisoners", emphasized João Mota.

Nobody talks "about those women and men. It was not only men, who fought and who died for April 25th to happen through weapons", he observed, stressing that the action of the play refers to the years 1954/1955.

"And if there had not been this struggle, which had already started before the Colonial War... There was already this ferment that fueled the possibility of overthrowing a dictatorship", he stressed.

The struggle of women and the suffering of the relatives of political prisoners is another of the cross-cutting themes of the play that talks about the death of a woman, who is arrested and dies at the hands of the torturers.

"And the in-laws blame her husband for what happened to their daughter, preventing the son-in-law from [re]seeing his son. And the granddaughter is burdened with that", stressed João Mota.

João Mota insisted that it is "necessary not to whitewash history or let memory be erased".

"This is how the dictatorship had been here for 48 years, and left many marks. People have forgotten that and this play serves as a reminder. So that we do not forget", concluded the actor and stage director who, months away from turning 82, makes a point of stressing that he lived 31 of them under a dictatorship, "which he does not want to return to".

On stage until June 16th, "23 seconds" is the 159th production of the Teatro da Comuna company.

The premiere is scheduled for 9:00 pm and the show will have performances on Wednesday and Thursday, at 7:00 pm, on Friday and Saturday, at 9:00 pm, and on Sunday, at 4:00 pm.

The cast includes Hugo Franco, Gonçalo Botelho, Paulo Lajes, Rogério Vale, Francisco Almeida, Miguel Sermão, Carlos Catalão and Maria Ana Filipe.

With stage assistance by Patrícia Neves, "23 seconds" has lighting design by Paulo Graça.

Leia Também: Festival Internacional de Teatro de Expressão Ibérica começa 47.ª edição (Portuguese version)