This first chapter is based on one of the neorealist books in Anselmo Dias' collection: A Selva by Ferreira de Castro. The phrase “a tremendous journey of the disinherited over the centuries”, which can be read in the preface to the book, was the starting point for the construction of this show. What is this journey? The journey in search of work and a better life. It's a show centered on the work and the proletariat of those who are in a new country. With two performers from Brazil, we once again see this intersection between individual history and collective history: we bring to the stage bodies that carry the weight of those who have already made this journey of emigrating to a new country (they carry their journey and that of so many others like them who are still making it today), and the weight of their cultural heritage marked by emigration, exploitation, slave labor and colonialism. These words reverberate in this play as words of access to the deconstruction of a way of thinking and being, of normative thinking that is still present today and that conditions us.

My Father's Collection is a new creative cycle by Cláudia Dias designed for a long time: 5 pieces over 10 years focused on her father's collection of works by neorealist authors.