Mozambican theater has just lost one of its greatest names. Director, actor, and theater teacher Evaristo Abreu died this morning at his home in Matola, after suffering from an illness.
Born in Maputo on October 5, 1966, Evaristo Abreu used theater to express what often remains unsaid. With a Master's degree in Dramatic Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, neighboring South Africa, and a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Eduardo Mondlane University, he knew how to combine academic rigor with artistic sensitivity, creating a body of work that transcends borders and generations.
He began his career in 1985, performing on the stages of companies such as TEJOCO, Txova Xita Duma, and Mutumbela Gogo. But it wasn't long before he created his own space for experimentation. In 1989, he founded the theater group Mbeu and, from 1998 to 2005, he gave heart and soul to the D'Agosto International Theater Festival, which made Maputo a capital of voices and bodies in motion.
Abreu believed in the power of art to transform realities. He spearheaded social intervention productions and collaborated with several government organizations, such as World Vision, where he coordinated community mobilization through theater in 2006.
He was repeatedly invited to serve on committees for the National Culture Festival, and since 2011, at the UEM School of Communication and Arts, he has been training new creators in Directing and Applied Theater.
Between 2015 and 2018, he wrote texts for the radio project "Ouro Negro," by PCI Media Impact, and in 2022, he launched the creation of EA. TEARTES, which he directed with the energy of someone who never tires of sowing seeds.
One of his last stage delights was "The Baobab That Dreamed of Birds," a fable that, in a way, mirrors Evaristo himself: a sower of dreams, even when the world insists on pruning the imagination.
(By Lucas Muaga)
