SAME sex marriage has been legal in Brazil since 2013. The Sao Paulo Gay Pride parade is the world’s largest LGBT Pride celebration with upwards of five million people taking part.

Yet, despite the samba celebration of same sex relationships and an official, top level acceptance of gay people, rampant homophobia still pervades.

This week’s Oran Mor play There Is Someone Who Hates Us looks at the impact of dark discrimination in this incredibly colourful country.

Written in 2011, it covers the “very private and loving relationship” of two women, Maria, from Brazil (Maria de Lima) and Cate (Eilidh McCormick) a foreign national.

The couple decide to live together in São Paulo, in an old and decaying apartment inherited by Maria, but they live in conflict.

Not only is there cultural friction, they discover “violence and terror knocking at their door, invading their home.”

The partners are forced to face physical and psychological abuse.

On top of this, Michelle Ferreira’s play reveals the couple have to contend with Brazilian justice, a mother who considers them a bad example, a priest who claims they are great sinners and an irascible landlady.

Maria de Lima is perfectly placed to play Maria, the Portuguese actress understands Brazilian culture implicitly, having worked in touring theatre in recent years.

“ It’s a fascinating play,” says Maria, who is set to star in upcoming movie I Am Henry, playing Catherine of Aragon.

“It works on so many different levels.”

Lisbon-born Maria has had a colourful professional life. She attended drama school in London, went back to Portugal, then did a post-graduate degree in London.

“I had done some TV and film in Portugal but I wanted to do more stage work so I returned to London.”

She adds, grinning; “But I had an American accent at the time, which was dominant so people didn’t know what to make of me. And of course I couldn’t get the hang of the English accent.”

The American accent came about after she embarked upon a student exchange programme, as a 19 year-old.

She found herself, not happily at first, in Houston, Oklahoma, AKA The Middle of Nowhere.

“It was a huge cultural shock, and I felt I’d gone back a hundred years in time,” she says, smiling in recall.

“I was used to club life, to cosmopolitan Lisbon, but the nearest house was a mile away.

“It was tough, and very lonely. And I had left my boyfriend behind. I felt really isolated.

“By the time I went to New York I couldn’t cope with the noise.”

The Oklahoma adventure did however real a major positive.

“That was when I decided I wanted to act,” she says. “Up until that point I had been studying Politics, and was unsure about my direction in life.

“But the school in Oklahoma had a great acting department and I was really encouraged.”

The lady’s adventures suggest a real strength of character, a woman who loves a challenge.

“Yes, I love to climb mountains,” she says. “But sometimes I’ve set challenges for myself which I haven’t been ready for.”

Later on, Maria lived in Los Angeles, to “broaden my experience.”

“I went to LA to take part in acting workshops, and I loved it. It had a Lisbon-type climate, the work was there.”

But not the sort of work she expected to land.

“In the UK I’ve struggled a lot with landing roles because I tend to be cast mostly as Spanish, the Latina roles.

“However, in Los Angeles, I tended to be cast in British roles because of the accent I had then acquired. It didn’t matter that I was Latina, the Americans didn’t seem to notice.

“And the Americans actually consider Latinas to be smaller, Mexican-looking (Maria, who once modelled, is five feet nine).”

She adds, smiling; “The Americans would even cast me as French or Russian.”

Maria’s experience also runs to working with Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney.

“He came to Portugal to make a film, a co-production, at a time when the Government was encouraging foreign film companies.

“Mickey was lovely, very kind and polite, and the experience was amazing.”

Now, she’s focused on her Oran Mor challenge.

“There is a homophobic undercurrent in the play but the centre of the piece is this dysfunctional relationship between me and Cate.

“I’m this middle-class woman with a rather disturbing background and I carry this legacy with me, and I’ve met this woman who is writing a thesis.

“There’s a sense that if anyone goes to Brazil then everything will be okay. But in relationship terms, that’s not how it all works out.”

The plays has great theme; societal tension and the reality of what happens with one couple between four walls.

“That’s it,” says Maria. “And I’m really enjoying this Oran Mor experience.”

She adds, grinning; “I did get a chance to see last week’s play however and I only understood about ten per cent of it.

“I’m really going to have to work on my Glaswegian.”

• There Is Someone Who Hates Us, Oran Mor, until Saturday.