ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a body of work that has received little critical attention: the theatrical works of Almada Negreiros, Fernando Pessoa, Mario de Sa-Carneiro, and Antonio Ferro, together with Jose Pacheco and Antonio Ponce de Leao. The first two decades of the twentieth century cannot be considered modernist given the conventional nature of theatre, as can be easily realized by the analysis of the theatre repertoires of the time. Antoine symbolically marked the start of modernism in theatre and the opening of doors to an independent theatre, although modernist theatre is generally associated with an anti-realist trend. The Portuguese theatre of the First Republic has already been located between an aesthetic of naturalist inclinations and a Romantic sensibility. The prolific amount of work Almada did in designing the sets, graphics and costumes for theatre companies has been documented by Vitor Pavao dos Santos.
