Mozambique mourns theatre icon Evaristo Abreu — beloved actor, director, and educator

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Mozambique mourns theatre icon Evaristo Abreu — beloved actor, director, and educator

1:24 CAT | 24 Sep 2025

Image via Linda Fernando/Facebook

Evaristo Gilberto de Abreu — a towering figure in Mozambican theatre as a director, programmer, actor, and university professor — passed away on Tuesday in Matola, aged 59.

Theatre director, programmer, actor, and university professor Evaristo Gilberto de Abreu passed away on Tuesday in Matola at the age of 59, following a prolonged battle with cancer.

Born in Maputo on October 5, 1966, Evaristo de Abreu held a Master’s degree in Dramatic Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and a degree in Sociology from Eduardo Mondlane University.

He began his theatre career in 1985 as an actor with TEJOCO, Txova Xita Duma, and Mutumbela Gogo. In 1989, he founded the theatre group Mbeu, serving as its director.

In 1998, Evaristo Abreu launched the Festival Internacional de Teatro D’Agosto, which he directed until 2005. According to a condolence message from the Escola de Comunicação e Artes (ECA) at Eduardo Mondlane University, the festival was “a landmark for the performing arts in the country, opening doors for cultural exchanges between Mozambican artists and groups from Africa, Europe, and Latin America.”

Evaristo de Abreu was involved in numerous theatre productions focused on social change, collaborating with various organizations, including government agencies.

In 2006, he joined World Vision, coordinating the department of community mobilization through theatre.

On several occasions, he served on the organizing committees of the National Culture Festival, at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Since 2011, he had been a professor at ECA – School of Communication and Arts at Eduardo Mondlane University, where he taught Stage Directing and Applied Theatre.

From 2015 to 2018, he worked as a writer for PCI Media Impact on the Ouro Negro project. In 2022, he created and directed EA. TEARTES.

Tributes are pouring in on social media,

Source: Notícias