When Tiago Rodrigues’ father was hospitalised in the last weeks of his life, he was regularly visited by Teresa, a volunteer who spent time talking to the patients, helping to combat the loneliness of the illness. The playwright and director heard his father talk about these encounters and his desire to write a book about his experiences in hospital. He even had a title: No Yogurt for the Dead.
After his father’s death, Tiago Rodrigues opened a notebook that his father had left behind to see what he had written in it. His hand must have been too weak – they were just scribbles. That’s when he decided to write this play, about a volunteer who hears the stories of a man about to die and the book he never got round to writing.