They Were There Too

A journey that takes you from the Avenida da Liberdade, through a door, up a flight of stairs and ends in a former film previewing room brimming with women’s stories about their experiences during the Estado Novo dictatorship, the revolution of 25th April 1974 and the revolutionary process which followed it.

Removed from history, at least from the prevailing historical narratives, Portuguese women still have a lot to say about the repression, censorship, machismo and sexism experienced throughout the 20th Century. This was particularly true during the Portuguese dictatorship where the motto “each in their own place” relegated them to places far from the public sphere and subject to the rule of their husbands in a profoundly conservative and patriarchal society. Even in the reports of the 25th April, women are missing, dominated as they are by heroic male military and political narratives. In the revolutionary process which brought new forms of organisation and political action, we don’t know where they are, or in which history books to find them, but we see them in demonstration photographs, in the films and documentaries of the period. We wanted to go and retrieve those voices which were lost and anonymous, but were nonetheless participants in all of this. To this end, we will be presenting multiple portraits of Portuguese women which also serve as a mirror on the present, or of how we got here.

Created for an iconic venue and for the surrounding area, this is a Teatro do Vestido production deeply anchored in the memories of the city itself, retrieving forgotten stories which are part of our collective past.