Humans live surrounded by incredible things, but often don't even notice that they exist. The boy in this story left home to discover the world and on the way he noticed a flower, withered, almost lifeless. He decided to save the flower and succeeded! This became his greatest adventure. This gesture of attention and love was profoundly transformative. Now all the people in the village where the boy lives realize that there has long been a huge and beautiful flower there. The boy in this story is a special story boy, because he grows from story to story and without realizing it, he touches more humans, small and big. We, the team of this show, started from José Saramago's story, that beautiful story, written with few words and added many more words, to give you other things and invite you to inhabit this new space. Thus, this story was born, and if you accept the challenge, the story can continue to grow through each of you and will always be bigger, like the flower, which is, The Biggest Flower in the World.

The Cast

Alexandre Calçada

This short story by José Saramago, speaks, in my opinion, about delivery, attention, care. A boy who dreamed of adventure and discovery leaves home and interrupts his search to take care of a small, withered flower he finds on the way. As interpreters our aim is to rescue these values that we find in this special boy in the story and let ourselves be infected by them in this work. Surrender, attention and care are also love. It was done with him. We hope you enjoy it!

Alexandre Calçada was born in Faro, in 1992. In 2014 he finished his degree in Interpretation at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE). He has worked with directors such as António Durães, Marco Martins, Jorge Castro Guedes, Paulo Calatré, Fernando Mora Ramos, Kate Craddock and Nuno Carinhas. Through the Erasmus programme he worked as an actor in two films made in Newcastle, UK. Still in Cinema, he participated in the short film "Dentro" by João Nuno Faria. He also has some work with national fiction producers: Plural Entertainment, in the soap operas "Santa Barbara", "Massa Fresca" and "Jogo Duplo" and at SP, in the soap opera "Paixão".

Elisabete Pinto

In the centenary year of our nobel prize, the ONLY one, our hero boy, the ONLY one of that village, "the smallest person of that place" teaches us the beauty of caring, of looking, of loving... and so we can be bigger than our size and be the heroes of our discoveries.

Elisabete Pinto was born in Castro Daire, Viseu, in 1974. She has a Professional Theatre Course in Ballet - Teatro Escola Profissional, in Oporto and a Post-Graduation in Artistic Education, by Escola Superior de Educação de Viana do Castelo. She is a Master's student in Artistic Education in the ESE-IPVC. She did her course internship in Reggio Emilia, Italy, under the guidance of the director Franco Brambila and the set designer Josef Svoboda. She started her professional activity in 1995, in the theatre company Filandorra- Teatro do Nordeste, in Vila Real. In January 1996, she joined Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana where she remains until today. As an actress, she participated in more than 90 professional creations. As a director, she has staged several plays for children and youth. She was Stage Director of Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana between 1999 and 2012. In 2013 she was elected President of the Board of Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana, CRL, having also assumed the Artistic Direction of the theatre company, a position she held until July 2015.

The Creators

Isabel Barros

Throughout her career she has developed work as a choreographer, performer, programmer and trainer. She was born in Porto and is a member of the board of the balleteatro, of which she was a founder. After her initial training in classical dance with Ruth Howner she took several courses in contemporary dance and composition in Paris, where she lived and studied. She participated in several seminars directed by Gisèle Barret and Pierre Voltz at the Institut d' Etudes Théâtrales - Paris III. In 1996, Berlin, she did an internship with Susanne Linke where she developed work in the area of solo performance. She studied theatre and finished her degree in Superior Course of Theatre in Escola Superior Artística do Porto. Regular collaborator of Teatro de Marionetas do Porto, since 1994, she also did the choreographic direction of the show O Lobo Diogo e o Mosquito Valentim, directed by João Paulo Seara Cardoso and presented at Casa da Música in Porto. As a programmer she has conceived for the balleteatro auditorium several cycles of shows in the areas of dance, theatre and music privileging transversal and alternative formats and dedicating moments for emerging creators. She received the Almada prize (1999), attributed to the balleteatro, as a distinction for the work done on the programming level. Related to this activity she has collaborated with various national and international networks and is a member of the artistic council of Repérages Danse à Lille. She is a teacher in balleteatro, in Escola Superior Artística do Porto and in Escola Profissional de Musica de Espinho and an invited trainer in other institutions. She is responsible for the coordination of several artistic projects of social character. She received the 1st prize Giros - festival de Artes, an APNA event, for her work with dancers, actors, musicians and people with disabilities, in a collaboration between Balleteatro and the Centro Regional de Paralisia do Norte. In 2008 she launched the book "Quando é que chegamos?". Since November 2010 she is director of Teatro de Marionetas do Porto.

José Luis Guimarães

...it all started with a beautiful conversation, about Saramago and his beautiful children's story, with the director Isabel Barros. Isabel had a vision, an idea. To tell this story with "things, objects". And my proposal was born there, in that instant in my head.

Then I read the little book "The biggest flower in the world". I immediately realised that "my idea" could help to tell this story.

This idea wanted to geometrize all the moments of the text. The trees, the mountains, the village, the river and... naturally the flower.

The proposal was to... to encourage with the scenography, the children's and adults' imagination, of those who see, listen and feel this story, to be told, with a set of scenographic objects able to be interpreted in different ways by all ... As if they were pieces of a puzzle that will fit together as the story progresses.

As a working method, I chose to build a scale model, in cardboard, capable of simulating accurately the construction of the scenography.

The manipulation of these solids in the model, helped to visualize in a very real way, the whole proposed scenario, as if the story was happening through each solid built.

There was also the concern of the dimension, the measure, the weight of each geometric structure. That is why I chose to build the pieces in wood shavings. Simple, light, with visual quality, and able to be transported to wherever the needs demanded.

Finally, colour came up. Brush some of the solids, which culminate in the staging with the pyramidal red of the "world's largest flower".

Born in Oporto, 1967.

Architect pHd. University teacher and researcher since 1991 at ESAP (Escola Superior Artística do Porto). Doctor in architecture.

Musician, painter, playwright, set designer.

As a musician (pianist), he was part of bands of different musical genres.

He is the author and composer of various songs and instrumental music.

As a painter, he participated in several collective exhibitions.

He is the author of dramas and theatrical comedies.

He has published three books of poetry.

He has published and awarded works in the field of architecture.

He works in scenography since 1982, for amateur and professional theatre.

Bruno Ferreira

Born in 1995, in Viana do Castelo. Attended and completed the High School course of Technical Industrial Maintenance - Electromechanics, at Escola EB 2, 3 Pintor José de Brito, in Santa Marta de Portuzelo, between 2010 and 2013. He continued his education at the Higher Technical Professional Course of Arts and Technologies, Light, Sound and Image, at the Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, which he attended and completed between 2016 and 2018. He started his professional activity as an independent worker, collaborating regularly with the company GAMProaudio, Lda, performing duties as a light technician and, subsequently, a light designer, from 2018 to January 2019, during which time he acquired experience and technical knowledge about lighting and sound systems, as well as about computer programmes for creating, programming, editing and operating light and sound, in addition to loads, trips, assemblies, realization and dismantling of concerts and music festivals, in Viana do Castelo, in the Municipal Theatre Sá de Miranda, in the Cultural Centre of Viana do Castelo and in the public space of this city, as well as throughout the Alto Minho and also in several national cities, through the circulation all over the country. Regular collaborator as a service provider of mounting and lighting technician in the Viana do Castelo Theatre Festival, invited by Teatro do Noroeste - CDV, in 2018 and 2020, continues his learning applied to the show and, in August 2021, to have accepted the invitation of the Resident Company of Teatro Municipal Sá de Miranda to integrate its technical team. Technical manager of Teatro do Noroeste - CDV, he has been collaborating with several guest and resident creators in the light drawings of creations such as: "Inconsolable Widow", by Fernando Gomes; "Hantígona", by Guillermo Heras; "Memory, Memory, History Began!", by Graeme Pulleyn; and the assistance to the lighting of Cárin Geada in "The Night", staging by Ricardo Simões.

Adriel Filipe

Born in 1993 in Brazil. He was a child model in photography and passarele. Arriving in Portugal in April 2009, he took the Technical Course of Sociocultural Animation at the Secondary School of Monserrate, Viana do Castelo, which he finished in 2012. In 2010 he joined the cast of an amateur theatre group from Santa Marta de Portuzelo (Grupo Parnassus) and participated in several theatrical initiatives and projects on an amateur or independent basis. He made his professional debut at Teatro do Noroeste-CDV in 2011, in the play "Ecos Verdes", by Castro Guedes. In 2012, she participated in a Theatre Masterclass with the actor João Grosso, as well as later, she did other training in interpretation, with Pedro Giestas and Guilhermo Heras. He participated in several editions of the Summer School for Actors, having as trainers Guilhermo Heras, João Mota, Olga Roriz, Alexandra Moreira da Silva, Isabel Barros, João Henriques, Teresa Lima, Ricardo Simões, Nuno Cardoso, Antonio Simón, among others. She integrated the resident cast of Teatro do Noroeste-CDV between January 2014 and December 2019, having participated in the shows "João e o Pé de Feijão", "A Vida Trágica de Carlota, a Filha da Engomadeira", "O Gato das Botas", "Viva o Casamento", "Pinóquio" and "Perdição", by Fernando Gomes; "Pequenas Peças Desoladas" and "Bodas de Sangue", by Guilhermo Heras; "Anjo Branco" and "(I)migrantes", by Graeme Pulleyn; "A Estalajadeira" and "A Noite" by Ricardo Simõers, among other productions of the Company until 2018/2019. Since 2020, by challenge of the Artistic Direction he exerts, mainly, the function of Executive Producer, having in charge the organization, implementation and monitoring of the creation, hosting and circulation processes of the Company, including and with emphasis on the Theatre Festival of Viana do Castelo; as well as the maintenance and articulation between the Company's working spaces, reporting to the Directive Board, the Artistic Direction and the Direction of Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana.

Educational Service

When the work team of the show A Maior Flor do Mundo decided it was essential to enter schools to create a bond of artistic affection between school audiences and the theater, we were far from imagining the journey that was about to begin!

The Mediação do Teatro do Noroeste - Centro Dramático de Viana visited 38 schools in the municipality of Viana do Castelo and talked to 2877 children! This pre-show visit intended to promote communication with children, educators and teachers from pre-school and first cycle, in an approach to the themes developed in the story.

We entered the school, entered each room and each group of children, and with each teacher and educator, we sharpened the curiosity of each child. We talked about the book The World's Largest Flower, we talked about José Saramago, about the book's illustrations, about the theater, the stage, and people who make theater, about how exciting it is for the theater to come to one's school, about who had been to the theater and who had never been, about how a story magically transforms into theater and warms our hearts. The flower was given names, new endings were invented, we imagined what it would be like if "Jose" saw the show, and everyone cut out, drew and painted their own biggest flower in the world! It was an incredible and absolutely necessary journey! A journey of love!

The story that José Saramago wrote gave Isabel Barros the thread to weave, build, shape, and shine, together with the actors Elisabete Pinto and Alexandre Calçada, who, after the mediation visit, made the theater happen in each of the schools!

It is our wish that this path continues to be built by all!

Long live the Theater!

The Premiere