The charitable world of the “poor little blind man” is over, now it is the harsh, cruel and ruthless realm of the blind. “It’s three hundred pages of constant anguish”, was how José Saramago described it, an anguish bereft of feelings and tinted by a very dark humor.Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira (1995) posits a fictional world where (almost) everyone has gone blind, an epidemic which leads a discretionary power to isolate the infected in a closed space. In this apocalypse of the soul, where “man is man’s wolf”, Saramago exposes the brutality of the desire for survival on the part of a devastated social body. The culmination of the cooperative project between the National Theatre of Catalonia and the Sao João National Theatre, the stage adaptation of the Saramago novel is emblematic of the Portuguese Nobel winner’s universality and the borderless character of the theatrical act. 

Direction: Nuno Cardoso | Set Design: F. Ribeiro | Wardrobe Nídia Tusal | Music Pedro “Peixe” Cardoso | Light Design: Nuno Meira | Sound Design: Joel Azevedo | Video: Luís Porto |Assistant Director: Manuel Tur | Actors: Ana Brandão, Adriana Fuertes, Albert Prat, Ferran Carvajal, Gabriela Flores, Jordi Collet, Jorge Mota, Lisa Reis, Joana Carvalho, Maria Ribera, Montse Esteve, Paulo Freixinho, Pedro Frias, Sérgio Sá Cunha | Co-production: Teatre Nacional de Catalunya and  Teatro Nacional São João