© Lori Nix & Kathleen Gerber

ALEX CASSAL / MÁ CRIAÇÃO – A Biblioteca do Fim do Mundo

Biblioteca Municipal de Loulé
Fri 12 NOV + Sat 13 NOV 21h30
Sun 14 18h30

FREE ADMISSION upon reservation
Theatre / M14
30% Theatre / 30% Meeting / 20% Intimacy / 20% Imagination

A Biblioteca do Fim do Mundo (The End-of-the-World Library) was thought out to be performed in libraries. In a time where the world seems to be on the verge of the apocalypse, a small group of spectators will spend some time with a small group of performers in a journey through some authors such as Marguerite Duras, Ray Bradbury, Virginia Woolf, Matilde Campilho, Homer, Umberto Eco, Mia Couto, Wislawa Szymborska, Stela do Patrocínio, Ocean Vuong, Hannah Arendt, Clarice Lispector, and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen.

There is not a single story connecting all these names. Instead, parallel conversations that complement each other and yet differ, allowing each audience member to leave with his or her own version of the same show. An experience to think about the past, the present and the future in the stories we create to brighten up the darkness while we wait for the dawn.
Wanting to establish unusual connections with the local community, during the creation of the performance in the Verão Azul artistic residency we have opened the process to Loulé residents, and some are now part of the cast.


Writer and Stage Director: Alex Cassal
Creators-performers: Alex Cassal, Bruno Huca, Estelle Franco and Keli Freitas
Guest Performers: João Caiano, Marta La Piedad, Martim Santos and Tata Regala
Stage assistant: Joana Frazão
Lighting design: Tomás Ribas
Set design: Elsa Mencagli
Photography: João Tuna
Communication: Carlos Alves
Production Director: Paula Diogo
Executive Producer: Vanda Cerejo
Co-production: Má-Criação, casaBranca / Festival Verão Azul – Cine-Teatro Louletano
Residencies: Festival Verão Azul 2020, O Espaço do Tempo
Partners: Biblioteca de Marvila, CML – Polo Cultural Gaivotas / Boavista
Thanks to: Ricardo Mendonça, Tiago Pinho / Torres de Loulé
With the support of: República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direcção-Geral das Artes, Produtor André Coelho – Plantação de Medronhos no Parque Natural da Rocha da Pena
Institutional Partner: República Portuguesa / Ministério da Cultura
Má-Criação is financially supported by Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and hosted by Alkantara.


Alex Cassal (Brazil, 1967) is a playwright, stage director and performer. He graduated in History at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – UERJ. In Brazil he is a member of Foguetes Maravilha and in Portugal part of Má-Criação. He has worked in theatre and dance productions with Felipe Rocha, Renato Linhares, Alice Ripoll, Dani Lima, Enrique Diaz, Gustavo Ciríaco, Denise Stutz, Michelle Moura and the Dimenti company (no Brasil); and Paula Diogo, Tiago Rodrigues, Jorge Andrade, Cláudia Gaiolas, Marco Paiva, Márcia Lança, Keli Freitas, and Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz (in Portugal), among others.
His work explores the relationship with the Other and stage mechanisms to create shared spaces of artistic challenge.

Má-Criação – Associação Cultural is a Lisbon-based structure created informally in 2008 by a loose-knit group of artists. Officially constituted as a Cultural Association in 2015, it now hosts and produces works by Paula Diogo and Alex Cassal, keeping a close connection with a regular group of artists such as Alfredo Martins, Cláudia Gaiolas, Estelle Franco, Masako Hattori, Alexander Kelly, and Renato Linhares. It is a production platform for artists interested in creating bridges with projects and authors from other cultural, artistic and geographic contexts that have a strong author-based component and rely on research and collaboration.