Dead Poets Society Sells Out Lisbon Theatre

Every performance of Dead Poets Society at Lisbon’s Teatro da Trindade has sold out since the stage adaptation premiered in April. The production, initially due to close in August, has been extended twice and is scheduled to run until 20 December. The audience has filled the theatre night after night; the play will now travel beyond Lisbon, with a Portugal tour beginning in January 2027.

The production adapts the screenplay for the 1989 film, written for the stage by the film’s screenwriter, Tom Schulman. Its story of a teacher urging students to think for themselves has found an audience among different generations. Hélder Gamboa, director of Tenda Produções, which is staging the play with Teatro da Trindade, said families come together to see it.

“We see grandparents bringing grandchildren who have never seen the film, parents who saw the film with their children, now bringing them to show them this,” Gamboa said. The packed performances have extended the production’s run, and the next stop already has its own sellout: all 16 performances at Teatro Sá da Bandeira in Porto are sold out.

A story about refusing the flock

Gamboa said the script and cast, led by veterans Diogo Infante and Virgílio Castelo, are also drawing audiences. He described the play as a work that speaks to the desire to live outside simple conformity. “This is a text we were needing at this moment. It is a text that gives us hope, that makes us want to be more than someone who simply belongs to a flock, that makes us want to have wings, to want to fly and to want to be ourselves,” he said.

Infante plays John Keating, the teacher played on screen by Robin Williams. Infante, one of Portugal’s most highly regarded actors and the artistic director of Teatro da Trindade, was instrumental in bringing the play to the venue. He said taking on the role meant engaging with the memory of Williams, whose performance remains familiar to audiences. Williams died by suicide in 2014 aged 63.

“It is a challenge, on the one hand, because I have to, in some way, deal with the memory of Robin Williams’s unforgettable performance, but on the other hand it is a profound pleasure, because it is an exceptionally well-written text, of great relevance today, which allows me, five nights a week, to speak words that are inspiring and motivating,” Infante told Euronews. “Working with this young cast is truly refreshing, so it has been a pleasure.”

The work behind the full houses

Asked whether repeating the same text becomes tiring, Infante contrasted theatre with office routine. “Working in a tax office for 25 years, from nine to five, that is what is tiring. I have the privilege of working in the arts, I work in theatre, I work with emotions and passion, with full houses. That is a privilege I embrace every day. If there are days when I am more tired or less inspired, I take a deep breath and go on, because it is my duty.”

Virgílio Castelo plays Gale Nolan, the school’s stern and feared headmaster, while Diogo Mesquita plays Mr Perry. Eight young actors recruited from various drama schools complete the cast. The Portuguese production is also intended to introduce these young performers to audiences, as the film helped launch the careers of actors including Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard, who played Keating’s students.

Rui Pedro Silva, 23, plays Neil Perry, a student passionate about theatre whose fate changes the lives of his teacher and classmates. Silva knew the film but chose not to watch it again while preparing the role. “I wanted to distance myself from the way the story was told at the time, but it is a film that has remained very vivid in my mind and that was very important for my development as an actor, as a person and as a teenager,” he said. Silva said the actors were chosen partly for characteristics they share with their roles. “I am very much a dreamer, very sensitive; I think I am a little like Neil,” he said.