LUDO (Work In Progress Showing)

'The African sky is much bigger than ours - it crushes us.' Ludo (Portugal 1925 - Angola 2010)

LUDO is a bilingual one-woman show telling the (sur)real life story of Ludovica "Ludo" Fernandes Mano. After Angola's independence (1975), Ludo barricaded herself and her dog, Phantom, inside her sister's apartment on the top floor of "The Building of the Envied” for 28 years.

Based on Ludo's diary entries, this performance brings her own words and poetry to life. From catching pigeons with diamonds, meeting Che Guevara the rebel monkey, and dealing with her agoraphobia, which forces her to use a full-body cardboard box whenever she steps onto her private terrace, to the darkest moments such as Phantom’s death.

LUDO explores themes of survival, post-colonialism, language-culture, and the human spirit's capacity to endure. The show uses multimedia to bridge the language barrier between Portuguese and English, preserving the original language's poetic sound.