How many stories are contained in the history of the Teatro São João? How many objects, sounds, pictures and words do we need to tell them? And can a single stage set contain and tell them all? If “nothing has really happened until it has been described”, as Virginia Woolf tells us, 10 Atos 100 Anos [10 Acts 100 Years], the exhibition that brings to a close our Centenary celebrations provides abundant proof of life for a building and its manifold uses. The Grand Hall, a place of festivity and protocol, hosts a memory container in the form of an undulating wall. Across its folds – evocative of stage curtains, as well as of the winding paths of remembrance – parade 10 major moments in the 100 years of this national monument. From the fire that destroyed the “old” Real Teatro to the “new” São João by architect Marques da Silva, from the São João Cine to the purchase of the edifice by the Portuguese State, from its renovation by architect João Carreira to Ricardo Pais’ “invention” of a National Theatre. Audio and video interviews, architectural plans, posters, costumes, stage photographs, films, chair 22, box 8. Material and experiential vestiges of a Theatre we all thought we knew. Tell us how it was; we have a huge past in front of us.