If you walk down Godena Harinnet (‘Liberation Avenue’) in the city centre of the Eritrean capital Asmara today – from Cinema Asmara towards September Square, Bahti Meskerem – you can still find the signboard of the ‘Asmara Theatrical Association’, Mahber Teyatr Asmera (Ma.Te.A.), opposite the huge crimson facade of Cinema Impero built in 1938. The signpost directs you to a dimly lit club in the basement of a large Italian house which used to be Ma.Te.A.'s home base thirty-odd years ago and was reclaimed by former members in 1993, after Eritrean independence (Figure 1). While nowadays the club is little more than a disreputable dingy bar (Treiber 2005: 132), its walls contain memories of a theatre company still considered to be the most productive and influential in Eritrea. This article traces the story of Ma.Te.A. as recollected and documented by its members and their contemporaries, from its beginning in 1961 until its gradual decline in the mid-1970s. Largely drawing on interviews and written documents from the period,1 I will discuss its establishment, shows and tours, with particular emphasis on the female members of the association.