Teresa Mota was writing from the age of twelve for her country's radio and television, in their first children's programmes, and at twenty received its drama critics' prize. Two years later, she was fleeing the dictatorship for Paris. There she founded with her husband a company of dreamlike shows, took a doctorate and taught for thirty years. In 1989, she spoke Pessoa's Maritime Ode in Portuguese.
The story
At twenty, in 1961, Teresa Mota played Juliet at Portugal's national theatre: the youngest actress the company had ever taken on, and the critics of Lisbon crowned her. Two years later she fled Salazar's dictatorship and made for Paris.
Born at Tomar in 1940, she was already writing at twelve for the first Portuguese radio and television programmes made for children. In Paris a Gulbenkian scholarship opened the doors of the rue Blanche drama school and the Sorbonne.
In 1969 she founded the Naïf Théâtre with her husband Richard Demarcy, a company of dreamlike, surrealist productions. She took a master's degree on Molière, a doctorate on the folk tale and the theatre, and taught at the Sorbonne Nouvelle until 2008. In 1989 she performed Pessoa's Maritime Ode in Portuguese — the text that held her to her own language, thirty years after exile.
Mother of Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, who runs the Théâtre de la Ville, she died on 1 January 2022. The stone in Division 57 carves the name of Tomar beside the name of Paris: “Maria Teresa MOTA-RODRIGUES, DEMARCY”.
The grave
An inscription bearing two names: “Maria Teresa MOTA-RODRIGUES, DEMARCY, 1940-2022”. Born in 1940, she won at twenty, in 1961, the Portuguese drama critics' prize for her Juliet. Nothing says she was the youngest actress at the Portuguese National Theatre, or that she founded the Naïf Théâtre, or that she taught for thirty years at the Sorbonne.
On site, do not miss
The inscription carves both her names — “Maria Teresa MOTA-RODRIGUES, DEMARCY” — and the year of her birth, 1940. Demarcy is the name of her son Emmanuel, who now runs the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.
Visitors' questions
Where is Teresa Mota Rodrigues's grave?
In Division 57, chemin Bourget, first row. The inscription reads “Maria Teresa MOTA-RODRIGUES, DEMARCY, 1940-2022” — the right year: she was born in 1940 in Tomar, from where her mother took her as a child to Lisbon.
Marc FumaroliWhy did she leave Portugal?
To escape the dictatorship, in 1963. She was twenty-two, already the youngest actress under contract at Portugal's national theatre, and had just won the drama critics' prize for her Juliet.
Enrique Gómez CarrilloWhat was the Naïf Théâtre?
The company she founded in 1969 with her husband Richard Demarcy (1942-2018): dreamlike, surrealist productions. Alongside it she taught at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, where she stayed until 2008.
Didier BezaceDoes her son run a theatre?
Yes: Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota runs the Théâtre de la Ville, in Paris. His mother had performed Fernando Pessoa's Maritime Ode in Portuguese in 1989 — the text that held her to her mother tongue, thirty years after she left Portugal.
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