On stage at Casa das Artes on 25, 26 and 27 April, with staging by João Cardoso, the play was born from a proposal by the artistic director of the company Assédio to create a show within the scope of the 50th anniversary of 25 April, without being "too complimentary".

"It is normal that on an anniversary we want to celebrate, and there are many things to celebrate, but there are many things that have yet to be told. There are many things that have been forgotten in the party. The crimes of the Colonial War are still sores that we do not want to look at. War crimes of a dimension that then destroys this idea that we have that our colonialism was not as bad as others", said to journalists, on the sidelines of a rehearsal, the author of the text, who is also part of the cast.

The character that gives the play its title is fictional, based on the figures of the co-founder of the Commandos Marcelino da Mata and the agent of the General Directorate of Security in Mozambique Chico Cachavi, involved in the Wiriamu massacre, in 1972, when hundreds of people were killed in a Portuguese operation.

"This story about this Aristides Inhassoro is a story about these massacres, it is fictional and the original idea was to explore what it is like to be a black soldier fighting in the Portuguese Colonial War, alongside the colonizer. His situation will always be tragic, it will always be very complex, because what does it mean to win the war, or to lose it? By winning, what is lost? By losing, what is gained?", questioned Pedro Galiza.

Son of a father born in then Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) and a mother born in Beira, Pedro Galiza says he "has always heard many stories about the Colonial War", in particular because his father was a Commando.

"The Colonial War continues to be a wound that is very poorly resolved in Portuguese society. We know it exists, we know what happened, we talk little, we talk with fear, we talk with tweezers, we talk with some complexes, some justified others not so much, I think. And I think that at this moment, when we are celebrating 50 years of 25 April, it is an excellent time to talk about the Colonial War again", said the actor and playwright.

The play is composed of several episodes between the different characters: "We developed a device in which it is a group of actors telling the story that Pedro wrote. It is something a little raw, raw, as is what [we are] saying. In the first act we have a social context that may eventually happen, then, in the second act it is the description of the massacre and, in a kind of third act or epilogue, it is the wounds that remained after the events", said João Cardoso.

Pedro Galiza stressed that this is not "documentary theatre, not even remotely", since all the characters are fictional, although there is, in fact, a lot of material from what he has heard throughout his life, although he has never travelled to Mozambique.

"I think that the Colonial War can be the motto of very interesting stories for us to understand where we are. What has already been talked about, what has not been talked about, what will never be talked about", said Galiza.

The play is a production by Assédio, co-produced by Casa das Artes de Famalicão and Teatro Municipal São Luiz, in Lisbon, where it will arrive next year.

The interpretation is by Daniel Silva, Daniel Martinho, Catarina Gomes, Inês Afonso Cardoso, Maria Inês Peixoto, Pedro Galiza, Pedro Mendonça, Pedro Quiroga Cardoso, Susana Madeira, João Cardoso and Gracinda Nave.

Leia Também: Teatro Viriato reabriu há 25 anos e revolucionou vidas em Viseu (Portuguese version)