Vitoria : Buraco

A work in progress sharing of a newly commissioned theatre performance by Ebun Sodipo, Vitoria : Buraco, will focus on Vitoria, an enslaved African trans woman living in Lisbon in the 17th century. Vitoria was a healer and sex worker living in Lisbon’s waterfront, who attracted the attention of the Portuguese Inquisition, who sentenced her to perpetual imprisonment as a rower on the King of Portugal’s galleys. She was from Benin in modern-day Nigeria, stating in her trail that women where she was from had bodies like her’s, gesturing to an alternative gender system, and way of relating to the body. 

Developed using the transcripts from her trail, and scholarship on her life, the performance centres on Sodipo’s relationship to this archive and what it means to find Vitoria. Taking place between Benin, Lisbon, the artist’s bath, dream space and the hole in the sky, the story of Vitoria will be told in a non-linear narrative using monologue, movement and sound. The premiere will take place in 2024 in Dublin as part of Live Collision International Festival, Vitoria is the first step in an ongoing research and practice honouring the life of Vitoria.  

Visit the full Live Collision programme here.