In 26th October 2019, the UMCOLETIVO theater collective and the GTCCP-Mindelo, Cape Verde, will release the libretto on which the dramaturgical experiences of their project Cartas (Letters) are retained. The texts are based on the correspondence between Amilcar Cabral and Maria Helena Vilhena Rodrigues, his first wife. How can theater talk about history?

CARTAS (Letters) is the ephemeral memory of a man and a woman, materialized in the letters they shared.

It starts in a simultaneous process of creation and rememberance, of the letters shared by Amilcar Cabral, and Maria Helena. Inevitably, the space is fragmented, as is the voice and the caligraphy. The asset of original letters that serve as the base text in the project (separated in two different creations, one in Cape Verde, one in Portugal) consists mainly of letters exanged between 1946 and 1960. Most of the letters, mainly those of Maria Helena, are lost on the voyages, on the escape from Portugal, on the fights, on oblivion. What comes to life on the theater project are those gaps, the spaces between focus. The movement of memory towards the body. This libretto dives into the projects and this space, in order to bring the Woman from the historical forgetfulness.