Comfort Zone

The word "comfort" was present in creating the show BOWING BACK. It is expected to hear the expression "getting out of the comfort zone", especially in relation to projects of an artistic nature. Here, we decided to step into the comfort zone and create that physical space to give participants and audience a place to land and stand side by side, pleasantly, among different cultures and peoples. The Comfort Zone was located in a parking lot in Odemira and consisted of different outdoor "rooms": the music room, where Pedro, Shoaib and Lian played and sang; the henna room, where Amanpreet painted with henna the arm of Chiara, who told a story at the same time; the room of rooms, where a group of girls talked about the comfort of their homes in Europe and Asia; the rap room, where a trio of young singers explained the political and social motivations of their rap lyrics; a bar with samosas and momos made by local restaurants; and a library coordinated by young Antonio, made up of bedside tables and books that inspired the creation of the show. The audience was invited to settle in, enjoy the space, eat, sit, listen to stories and music, and wander. There were carpets on the floor, chairs, and tables converted into tents formed the bar. Inside the abandoned student centre (the New SEF), we found the bedside tables and old student desks from the time of the Portuguese dictatorship, which were arranged in a small amphitheatre for henna painting. But it all started with the dance of comfort: while the audience arrived at the venue, the cast was distributed across the different carpets, repeating simple and cheerful dance steps and inviting people to learn and join the dancing crowd. At moments in the sequence, a large corridor would open through which the audience would pass, which we called the Avenue of Comfort. Creating the Comfort Zone was like building the inside of an open-air house. During rehearsals, groups of men from Punjab would sit around the space, and the parking lot would become a cosy place. We would have team meetings and eat lunch on the floor, on the carpets. The comfort it generated sometimes made room for delicate and complex topics. There were multiple and contrasting reactions: curiosity, repulsion, total adherence. Some people from the public entered the human corridor and let themselves be carried away; others surrounded the space and watched attentively; others still retreated, and some left the space, refusing our invitation. There is a long way to go.