“We are seventy thousand workers in the/ Lennox plant and we/ can’t live a day longer on these low wages.” The story takes place in Chicago, right after the stock market crash of 1929, but it could happen in any place and time. This is the always unfinished story of the weak and defenceless faced with the discretionary power of owners, bosses and speculators. Between both groups, Bertolt Brecht creates a character, Joan Dark – based on the historical figure of Jeanne d’Arc –, who, inspired by her religious faith, joins the workers in their struggle against unemployment and poverty, but finds herself quickly instrumentalised by the powers-that-be. “Keep out of earthly fights!/ The meddler in a fight becomes its victim!” Written between 1929 and 1931, but only premiered on stage in 1959, Santa Joana dos Matadouros [Saint Joan of the Stockyards] is a key play in Brecht’s repertoire, now brought to the Teatro Carlos Alberto in a staging by Bruno Martins, performed by the Teatro da Didascália company.