Legendary Portuguese Actress and Theatre Pioneer Graça Lobo Passes Away at 85

The actress Graça Lobo, founder of the Lisbon Theater Company, died today at the age of 85 in Torres Vedras, a source from the Casa do Artista told the Lusa agency.
Born on April 12, 1939, Graça Lobo distinguished herself as an actress and director. Over nearly 50 years of her career, she primarily performed texts that defined contemporary theater, from playwrights such as Luigi Pirandello, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Harold Pinter. Her performance of “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Ibsen was one of her greatest successes.
She made her debut at the Casa da Comédia in February 1967 in “White Nights” by Dostoevsky, directed by Norberto Barroca, while she was still a student at the National Conservatory.
She was part of the Teatro Estúdio de Lisboa, led by Luzia Maria Martins, and the Teatro Experimental de Cascais, directed by Carlos Avilez, other pioneering companies of independent theater, challenging the years of dictatorship.
In 1979, she founded the Lisbon Theater Company, staging works by James Joyce, Harold Pinter, Noel Coward, Alan Ayckbourn, Miguel Esteves Cardoso, among other authors.
She was “Molly Bloom,” from “Ulysses” by James Joyce, and staged the “Letters Portuguese Attributed to Mariana Alcoforado.” This show, which dominated the 1979-1980 season at the National Theater D. Maria II, opened doors for her to international stages, from Ljubljana, Tokyo, and São Paulo, to San Francisco and New York, where she performed at the historic La Mama Experimental Theatre.
Among her most recent works were “Here I Am, Comma Graça Lobo,” which premiered in 2003 at the São Luiz Theater, and “The Three (Old) Sisters,” based on the classic by Anton Chekhov, featuring Mariema and Paula Só, directed by Martim Pedroso, at the D. Maria Theater in 2015.
In 2001, she published “Sincerely,” a collection of short stories.
Graça Lobo liked to emphasize her contradictions and irreverence, which she embraced as a characteristic trait, as she confessed in various interviews throughout her career. “I have a mania for freedom,” she said.