Imagine a theatre show that combines the literary power of one of the most celebrated novels in world literature with the forefront of contemporary social debate on a thorny subject, revitalised by queer revolutionary activism: the abolition of the family. This is Pais & Filhos, written by Pedro Penim based on the Russian classic written in 1862 by Ivan Turgueniev, which lends its title to the show, and under the influence of Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family, published in 2019 by Sophie Lewis, a feminist committed with Cyborg Ecology and Queer Communism. Continuing a work of duplication between the biographical document and the creation of a fictional universe, Penim – who has an ongoing parenting project through the controversial process of surrogate pregnancy – seeks to deepen the debate on parentage and family, involving not only theatre spectators but also the media, academia and civil society and expanding Pais & Filhos to a dimension that goes beyond personal history.
