Vitoria : Buraco is a live theatrical performance by Ebun Sodipo that will focus on Vitoria, an enslaved African trans woman living in Lisbon in the 17th century.

Vitoria was a healer and sex worker living in Lisbon’s waterfront, who attracted the attention of the Portuguese Inquisition, who sentenced her to perpetual imprisonment as a rower on the King of Portugal’s galleys. She was from Benin in modern-day Nigeria, stating in her trial that women where she was from had bodies like her, gesturing to an alternative gender system, and way of relating to the body.

Developed using the transcripts from her trial, and scholarship on her life, the performance centres on Sodipo’s relationship to this archive and what it means to find Vitoria. Taking place between Benin, Lisbon, the artist’s bath, dream space and the hole in the sky, the story of Vitoria will be told in a non-linear narrative using monologue, movement and sound. Vitoria is the first step in an ongoing research and practice honoring the life of Vitoria.

Commissioned by Live Collision International Festival funded by Arts Council Ireland with additional support from Carlow Arts Festival.

Artists Ebun Sodipo
Director Imani Mason Jordan
Producer Iarlaith Ní Fheorais
Assistant Producer Rema Hamid (LCIF2024)
Costume Design Jade O’Belle
Lighting Design Luke Goodlitt
Set Design Furmaan Ahmed
Sound Design Kayodeine