Vitor welcomes us with a wide grin! We have returned to the Tambo Tambulani Tambo culture centre in Pemba, majestically run by Vitor Raposo, actor, author, director, scenographer and factotum!

Vitor is extremely active, he writes, plays, directs, acts. He is finishing a job for a radio theatre project and this evening, he tells us, he will play music in a restaurant with his group. He has shown us two performances: the first was about a curandero and a traditional ritual to make rain fall, while in the second the central figure is a policeman, a policeman who invents a law and uses it to obtain newly-caught fish from two women.
I was awestruck! At a certain point the policeman turns towards the two women: “You can’t say that I am corrupt, can you?”. And they, together, shout “Yes!!!”.

Some Mozambiquans who were behind me and who were helping us burst out laughing! And I wrote in my notebook that corrupt policemen make people laugh…

Vitor was the agent, and his scenic presence was felt and heard by everyone. He’s good, really good!
Even Felix agrees. He knew Vitor because of his fame but had never met him or seen him act, but he was also struck by the man.
After the performances we sat under a tree to speak: Vitor tells us stories and about the symbolism of animals. A lion means power, authority. A monkey is astute, an opportunist. A rabbit discovers the frauds but often falls for them just the same.
We ask him what makes the Mozambique theatre audiences laugh and he answers that mistakes made in Portuguese are funny, traditional but fake doctors who invent rites to earn money, conceited people who boast and then dress badly, speak badly.
Vitor has an extensive knowledge of Mozambiquan tradition and is an extraordinary orator.
I’m looking for connections with our Harlequin. The figure of the Trickster exists in many theatrical cultures, the astute person, the opportunist like I said before who can, in a certain way, be traced back to our Harlequin, the servant of two masters…
If we could find a connection, a common point between Harlequin, who Dario has studied extensively, and a theatrical figure here in Mozambique, we would be at a good point…
It’s just an idea but I want to follow even this road…