Sofia Santana's new play, titled 'EARTH', arrives in Castelo Branco on September 17th to confront the audience with current disputes over land, landscape and collective future. The documentary play resulted from an extensive process of social and community consultation across the national territory, after a period of artistic residency in the municipality of Castelo Branco. The playwright signs the authorship of the stage project and performs in the cast alongside actresses Laura Frederico and Marina Leonardo.
The work counts with the financial support of the Directorate-General for the Arts and is an official co-production with the Centro de Artes do Espectáculo de Portalegre. The artistic team established a scientific partnership with ZERO – Association for a Sustainable Earth System, which ensured rigorous monitoring of the entire dramatic narrative. This institutional connection reinforces the ecotheatre dimension, crossing technical data with popular memory collected over months of empirical research in several regions of the country.
The dramaturgy began to take shape during a creative residency held in Aljustrel, in the Baixo Alentejo region, an area strongly marked by industrial impact. On stage, the dialogues combine moments of humor, poetry and direct confrontation, exposing contradictions evident in intensive agriculture, mining exploration, energy transition, desertification and urban expansion. Environmental issues appear interconnected with human survival, addressing access to drinking water, preservation of ecosystems and food security.
The staging is structured in multiple thematic frames that question who decides the fate of Portuguese soils and how far society is willing to go in the name of economic progress. Land is presented simultaneously as living matter, exploited natural resource, living space and collective heritage. The world premiere in Castelo Branco marks the start of the tour across the mainland territory, consolidating new artistic languages linked to ecology and the sustainability of territorial resources.
