Our admiration for Vera Mantero's unique and robust work and for the incisive poetry of her questions and propositions motivated our invitation. We did not pose any guiding questions, as we wanted to open up a free field, to be shaped by her methods of research and composition, for an encounter with the personal, social and cultural realities that Companhia Maior embodies. But this summer, a book arrived in bookshops that says a lot about the enclave where old age is situated and which we have been studying:

“In a society where everything that is not absorbed into the capitalist logic of valorisation is pushed into the status of inferior and deficient, old age can never be anything other than a deficiency and something disturbing” (Velhos Supérfluos, Andreas Urban, 2024, Antígona).

Companhia Maior demonstrates the value of creative ageing for health, well-being and social cohesion, and the importance of its high visibility on stage. In this way, it counters the ageist stereotype that emphasises the weakness, dependence or uselessness of older people, depriving them of their right to happiness. As the band Titãs sang, criticising welfare for the poor: ‘we want life the way we want it... we want drink, fun and art... we want it whole and not half’ (Comida, 1989). And so the question arises that we find in another book: ‘Is being happy immoral?’ (António P. Ribeiro, 2000, Cotovia). These are ideas that hover over the identity and current thinking of our company.

Paula Varanda, Direction of Companhia Maior