This book takes its place in an area little visited by Portuguese scholars of the theatre phenomenon in Portugal. In fact, it is an area that unfolds in two fields: on the one hand, the exposition of theories and ideas about theatre and ways of doing it, and the characterisation and inventory of the theatrical activity that, over a given period, was inspired by them; on the other, the history of a theatre house, those who successively worked in it and the shows they created, the criticism they aroused and the audiences they seduced.

As the guiding and unifying thread of the journey, the author converges the main lines that led to the renewal of theatre through multiple experiences in the first half of the 20th century in one figure – Fernando Amado – and highlights the motivation that his theatrical achievements, first one-off and then with a systematic rhythm at the Casa da Comédia, found in the body of his ideas about theatre. References to the dawn of theatre modernity in Portugal and, at the other end of this chronology, to the subsequent period of the theatre’s life until 1974 round off the work.

The period it covers is now one more memory to enrich our theatre history, at the same time as we rediscover the importance of some of the ideas and ideals that ensured its vitality.

Teresa Amado.