O teatro mirandês ou a afirmação da identidade de uma minoria como testemunho da vitalidade e resistência de uma cultura submetida

The article refers the socio‑cultural context of theatrical popular representations (religious and profanes) performed in the North‑East of Portugal, with special focus on two sketches: Porcina and Marquês de Mântua, showing their immunity to the processes of socio‑political change in the time of submission of a genuine culture to the folklorization and the commercial verification of pure ritual. The recovery of the literary works which, on behalf of their artistic value, are fundamental in the history of drama of Miranda do Douro has been established as a part of much broader editorial programme which contemplates the defence of Miranda do Douro at almost every level (territorial, social, political and cultural one) and the regeneration of the Miranda do Douro collective conscience. It is also an appeal for the preservation and protection of the Miranda do Douro playwriting, about to expire nowadays, important as and identitarian factor of a people who have never been recognized as State‑nation, functioning today as a mark of a distinctive regionalism sui generis.