The Three Marias
★★★☆☆ Important
Braw Venues @ Grand Lodge (Venue 7): Wed 26 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
The Three Marias, from Voices Collective Company at Braw Venues at Grand Lodge, tells an important story that is completely unknown to British audiences. While it does so elegantly, it does not always convince as a drama.
The play, by Eduarda Nogueira, is inspired by the publication of Novas Cartas Portuguesas by Maria Velho da Costa, Maria Isabel Barreno and Maria Teresa Horta in 1973. Challenging the moral authority, censorship and patriarchy of the repressive Portuguese state, the book was denounced as ‘pornographic and morally offensive’.
Maria de Barros, Eduarda Nogueira and Isabella Dellazari Velarde Pic: Cecilia Volpi.
It is rare to see a depiction onstage in this country of the Portuguese ‘New State’; British audiences are familiar with dictatorships in other European countries established in the 1930s, but that Portugal’s went on until the 1970s is not widely known. Recent events across Europe make it vital that this history is not forgotten.
The three women chose to write the book as a collaboration to show solidarity and protect individual identities, but here the characters of the three writers are economically established. The writing of the actual book is dealt with in some depth, although the problems of showing artistic creation dramatically are always evident. However, the historical context, wider repercussions and aftermath are more sketchily drawn.
distancing
There’s also that ‘translated’ feeling to some of the dialogue that can make it stilted. This has a distancing effect, and as a result it is difficult to become fully absorbed in the dialogue. The sections in Portuguese, even if you can’t understand them, come across as more natural. The cramped acting area leads to a static staginess that is never quite overcome despite Zuza Soltykowska’s sympathetic direction.
There’s real commitment to the performances, however. Nogueira’s earnest Maria de Fátima, Isabel Dellazari Velarde’s more cynical Maria Isabel and Maria Barros’s enthusiastic Maria Teresa are instantly differentiated, played with empathy and realism, and form a coherent ensemble.
While this only tells some of the story, it may well encourage anyone who sees it to find out more. Good as much of this is, however, it does seem oddly unfinished.
Running time: 55 minutes (no interval).
Braw Venues @ Grand Lodge (Studio), 96 George St, EH2 3DH. (Venue 7).
Wednesday 26 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
Daily: 1.15pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Instagram: @thethreemarias.fringe
TikTok: @the.three.marias
Linktree: @thethreemarias.fringe.
Maria de Barros & Isabella Dellazari Velarde with Eduarda Nogueira. Pic: Cecilia Volpi.
ENDS
