Created in Maputo by Portuguese stage director Victor de Oliveira and Mozambican artists David Aguacheiro, Nandele Maguni and Caldino Perema, Fires has a cast of ten Mozambican actors, including the highly regarded Ana Magaia. Co-produced by Culturgest, it premièred in Maputo in August 2019.

The play begins with the death of Nawal, who, in her will, asks her twin children Joana and Simão to look for their father and brother, whom they never met, following their search for a terrible truth, hidden in a past marked by civil war in the far-off country from which their mother fled. 

Born in Maputo during the war of independence, Victor de Oliveira came to Portugal with his parents and studied theatre with Luís Miguel Cintra, João Brites and Fernanda Lapa, later settling in Paris. He has returned to Maputo on several occasions, giving lessons and presenting works. At Culturgest, he directed Pascal Rambert’s Love’s End. Fires marks Victor de Oliveira’s dual return to Maputo and Lisbon.