Joãozinho Da Costa

Artist statement

Joãozinho Da Costa – Actor and Director (1991, Cacheu, Guinea-Bissau). Came to Portugal at the age of 11 with his father and four brothers. Graduated in Visual Arts and Tourism in Barreiro. Attended the Architecture course at the Faculty of Architecture in Lisbon.

Recently, he acted as a performer in “Water in a Heatwave” (2021) by Miles Greenberg, integrated in BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts, “Anda, Diana” (2021), by Diana Niepce, and “Interior” (2021), by Tiago Vieira. In 2020, he wrote and directed his first play, “Duas Peças de Xadrez”, based on a true story. In cinema he played the character of “ISSA” in the short film “Nha Sunhu”, by José Magro (2020). Member of the cast of the performance “MAL – Embriaguez Divina” by Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Protagonist of “A Rapariga Mandjako”, by Rui Catalão, inspired in episodes of her life story. He has also participated in the plays “E Agora Nós”, “Assembleia”, “Jornalismo, Hipnotismo, Amadorismo” and “Último Slow”, by Rui Catalão. He acted in “Histórias em Viagem”, by António Vieira and Julieta Rodrigues. Concluded the Guilherme Cossoul Actor Training (2019) with the performance “Amor de Dom Perlimplim com Belisa em Seu Jardim”, directed by Vicente Morais. He worked with actor/director/performer Welket Bungué in his creation “No, We Are From Here”.

My first project as a director came about after an invitation by the director of Rua das Gaivotas 6, Pedro Barreiros. I confess it was a mixture of fear of failing and the will to get it right. But today I can see that I’ve always had the need to go further, to risk doing something I have always been very curious about, because as much as I love being on stage, directing can make me vibrate in a unique way.
When I started thinking about staging a play, it immediately came to me that it would have to be about a subject that touched the lives of the people I know, the neighbors who live in the social neighborhood where I live, and that could, at the same time, raise awareness in society. Or just bring up for discussion a subject that is little spoken of, if at all. “Duas Peças de Xadrez” is inspired by the life story of my childhood friends, who through many ups and downs of life took a different path from mine, ending up in prison. I remember that the idea became clearer when I met up again with one of my friends who had been in jail after eight years. And he was no longer the same as in my memories, the smile did not resemble what I recalled, and the look in his eyes was like a void, unapproachable. He had been medicated with largactil, better known as chlorpromazine, which is used to treat schizophrenia. But in Portugal it is also used by prison guards to calm the most violent or badly behaved prisoners.
I already knew stories of neighbors who had their relatives in jail and told how they were medicated with largactil to make them more docile and calmer. Only in the end they become “living dead” without much awareness and completely out of touch with reality. This theme seemed to me more than important, urgent to be worked on and talked about.