Portuguese author Miguel Araújo Oliveira published his play Salazar’s Angels of Death in 2024, the year that marked the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution's peaceful overthrow of Portuguese fascism (Estado Novo). The book contains an afterword by the author, in which Oliveira expresses his dismay at the rise of the extreme right in Europe. Salazar’s Angels of Death is intended to commemorate and warn against the return of authoritarianism. Plot: The work concerns a group of young dissidents who kidnap a man during the Portuguese dictatorship (1933 - 1974) to put him on trial. The youth accuse the man of being an unofficial member of the PIDE (Salazar's secret state police). They also accuse him of spying on various people and thus being responsible for their arrest, torture, or murder. The accused tries to defend himself. However, as he justifies and whitewashes fascism, he is unable to convince the dissidents of his innocence. The trial leader sentences the alleged informant to death. But just before the dissidents can take the law into their own hands, the tide turns... Excerpt: Then, suddenly, they stand in my cell again. They put a pistol to my temple. Cock the hammer. They play their antics with me. Laughingly. Pretending. Then suddenly they pull the trigger. I flinch. Desperately. I close my eyes in a flash. With fear. My whole body trembles. But they laugh again. “You were lucky”; they sneer and jeer. “There was no bullet in it. This time!” Review: “Miguel Oliveira’s play is intense. It brings the injustice and brutality of the dictatorship to the stage, giving a voice to the victims of torture and violence who suffered under the regime. It is an unbearable text that shows the hopelessness, the bitter suffering, and the failure of a group of young dissidents who, in the midst of arbitrary rule, find the courage to demand freedom for themselves and their country.” Susana de Abreu, former university lecturer in literature
