New Dóci Papiaçám play inspired by typhoons and other turmoil

The patuá-language theater group Dóci Papiaçám di Macau has started rehearsals for this year’s show, which will be presented at the upcoming edition of the Macau Arts Festival.

The group has based this year’s play on the latest turmoil over the weather bureau’s erroneous hoisting of the typhoon signal, among other topics.

The play, which will be presented as a musical, will be held at the Grand Auditorium of the Cultural Center (CCM) on May 19 and 20, and will explore the controversy surrounding the topic in a satirical way.

Named “Sórti na Téra di Tufám” (Luck in the Land of Typhoon), the play tells the story of an unlucky individual who was fired from his company on the same day that all his colleagues were promoted. At the same time, he discovers that he has won a prize in a Hong Kong lottery, which he cannot claim because a typhoon signal has been hoisted in Macau and the ferries have stopped, the playwright Miguel Senna Fernandes told Tribuna de Macau.

While no new members have joined the troupe this year, the play marks the return of Angela Ramos, who has been absent from patuá plays for more than 10 years, as a main character.

The Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) has been under fire for incorrectly predicting and assessing typhoons, such as Typhoon Nida last August. The SMG said the weather did not justify a T8 typhoon signal, a decision that was strongly contested by residents. In other occasions, classes were suspended in milder weather.