Composed of actors aged between 30 and 40, the company has Brazilian artists from Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Pará, Maranhão and a Portuguese actor, added Marcelo Andrade, the company's director, in an interview with the Lusa agency.

'In the shark's mouth', which is on stage at the Sociedade Filarmónica Recordação D'Apolo, in Ajuda, in Lisbon, addresses xenophobic issues, the migration crisis, the way in which "people are abandoned to their fate", and is the starting point of a company that wants to "confront the advance of the extreme right and hate speech", because "hate speech kills".

The aim of the group "is to be open", observed Marcelo Andrade, adding that it is not because it is called Teatro do Imigrante "that it will not accept Portuguese artists or other nationalities".

The main idea was "to create a space to welcome immigrant artists who did not have, for example, the possibility of being in a Portuguese company or who did not have other jobs", he stressed.

"What we want most is for Portuguese artists to also be with immigrants debating immigration issues", he said, emphasising that they intend to have "as many as possible, all types of nationalities represented" in the company.

Only in this way will they be able to "debate immigration policies like everyone else, like the whole society" and "dialogue with all audiences, of all nationalities, about various perspectives".

"That's what the group was born for" when, in November 2023, the actors began to come together to form the group and went from space to space until they ended up at the Sociedade Filarmónica Recordação D'Apolo, which welcomed them very well, provided them with a space for rehearsals and where they are now premiering the first play, he said.

An actor in Brazil, Marcelo Andrade arrived in Portugal almost four years ago to do a master's degree and has never acted since.

As he had never gone so long without acting, he thought of bringing together actors who "had difficulty integrating into Portuguese companies", thus giving rise to the first production in Portugal, with which they intend to be able to live solely from theatre.

Although the actors who make up the group are professionals, they all have other jobs that guarantee them a livelihood.

'In the shark's mouth' is composed of three stories and the narrative is based on a "guiding line, a white shark", said the author and director of the play. Asked if the white shark represents the extreme right, Marcelo Andrade said no.

The play goes further, detecting prejudice, what is ingrained, what is unthinkable, hate speech, which destroys everything.

The first story of the play shows a father and daughter debating the rise of the extreme right in Portugal and Europe and leaves a question "at what point in our daily lives will we have a discourse on anti-immigration policies?"

Some of the lines in the play portray xenophobic attitudes heard by the author "in places where he worked". Not against him, but against some specific minorities, he indicated, giving the example of the case of "a very dear and very cute lady who referred to a certain minority saying that they have children like cockroaches".

Marcelo Andrade also argued that "hate speech has been growing". "Gradually, (...) I feel that there is a crescendo, mainly on social networks".

When he arrived in Portugal there was "a discourse here and there in the comments and in the message boxes, which is now increasing a lot".

And if while he was more involved in the academic world, Marcelo Andrade said he did not feel hate speech so much, with the coexistence with all kinds of people "he realises that this discourse is growing" that is becoming "half open in the speeches".

What was said before "in a very veiled way", now "is beginning to gain strength and the word is beginning to be spoken without much reservation", he concluded.

The migration crisis, namely that of the Mediterranean, where people "are abandoned to their fate, in a crossing that has already killed so many people" also has space in the play and occupies a place in the company that intends to "confront the advance of the extreme right and hate speech". he stressed.

"Because hate speech kills", emphasised Marcelo Andrade, regretting that this is a phenomenon that affects Portugal and the whole of Europe.

'In the shark's mouth' has dramaturgy, staging, scenery and costumes by Marcelo Andrade. It is on stage at the Sociedade Filarmónica Recordação D'Apolo, in Ajuda, in Lisbon.

The performances take place on Saturday and on the 24th, 25th and 26th of May. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, they start at 9 pm, on Sunday, at 5 pm.

The play is performed by Alexandra Marinho de Oliveira, Gabriella Hedegaard, Geraldo Monteiro, Gonçalo da Costa Ramalho, Lorena Garrido and Tiago Braz, with a special participation by Camilo Bevilacqua.

The soundtrack is by Felipe Maciel and the photos and videos by keise.

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