A Dimensão Teatral do Auto da Fé [The Theatrical Dimension of the Auto de Fé], the result of Bruno Schiappa’s research, was publicly presented on by Isabel Drumond Braga and Maria João Almeida. The launch took place on 13th July in Room 5.2 at FLUL. 

Bruno Schiappa introduces his book

“Focusing on the relationship between theatre and society, this book stems from the theatricality of the Auto da Fé, the Inquisitional ceremony in which, publicly and with great pomp and circumstance, those convicted of heresy and their respective sentences were announced. The church and the theatre have always, in one way or another, been related and this condition led me to think that the manifestations of religious power used theatrical procedures and that there was always an awareness of how effective theatre was as an instrument of establishing order and correcting misbehaviour. With the Auto da Fé, there was the particularity that it operated simultaneously as an instigator of terror and a source of party.

The public adhered to this dual function, externalizing their emotions, vocally following the chants and prayers and inciting the unconfessed condemned to admit their crime. I am, and have always been, the type of man who finds pretending the best way to both hide and reveal himself. Since the age of six, I’ve known that I wanted to be an actor—without knowing exactly what that meant or its importance at the heart of society.

I just felt that I couldn’t get enough (and hoped I’d never get enough) of pretending. I was far from knowing that this pretence was my version of the more general concept of acting. (…) There was and is, therefore, a direct relationship between theatre and society. But this relationship has never been limited to entertainment or to being one of the human being’s forms of artistic expression. There was and is an aesthetic utility in the theatre that allows it to conform to an ideology or a set of standards of conduct. In this way, the theatre has functioned both as an instrument of pedagogy and advertising.”