Théâtre La Licorne

France

Les Miniatures de La Licorne
Chère Famille!

Museu da Marioneta
7, 8 May at 10pm

DIRECTION AND SCENOGRAPHY Claire Dancoisne
PUPPETEER Thomas Dubois
OBJECTS Alain Le Béon, Anne Legroux, Hervé Lesieur, Francis Obled and Patrick Smith
MASKS Hervé Lesieur
MUSIC Pierre Vasseur
LIGHT DESIGN Manu Robert
COSTUMES Catherine Lefebvre assisted by Annette Six
PHOTOGRAPHS Laurent Pascal
TECNIQUE Object theatre and puppets
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/8
TIME 40 minutes
LANGUAGE French

"Chère Famille!" a show for one actor, one table, tool boxes and tiny objects for secret places and meetings.
"A mad man, an inspired poet, a heroic handyman gives himself the mission to save a world of forgotten sequins. A world where one can fix the everyday life to make it glow a little more. Alone in his shed, surrounded by his tools, he is the unique survivor of a circus family and he now wants to believe in the miracle of his prodigious toolbox.
Longing for the smell of hay, grease and formalin, he recreates impossible acts, scale 1/30th!"

One little format show or a miniature by La Licorne and all the charm of their peculiar and imaginary world... singular and unforgettable!

Theatre La Licorne is a company directed by Claire Dancoisne and based in Lille, France. The manipulation of home made objects and masks are the core of their shows. Actors, visual artists and musicians work together to take imagination further. The beauty of the images and the art of masks are their way to explore a theatrical language made of flesh, paper, metal, colours and sounds. Non-realistic and often poetic, La Licorne proposes a unique blend of contemporary theatre, visual arts and puppetry.

“With an economy of means and space, the spectator enters an immense universe, a voyage into time, in the memory of circus, poetry and life. And poetry wins in the end, fragile like a family of birds on electrical wires.” - La Gazette Nord-Pas-de-Calais

“The magic comes from tiny things. From the gestures and dreams of a comedian projecting his desires of incredible acts on the screen of our childhood.” - La Depeche du Midi

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Tàbola Rassa

Spain

El Avaro

Museu da Marioneta
9 May at 10pm
10 de May at 5pm

ORIGINAL IDEA Jordi Bertran
CONCEPTION Jordi Bertran, Olivier Benoit, Miquel Gallardo
DIRECTION Olivier Benoit, Miquel Gallardo
ADAPTATION Eva Hibernia, Olivier Benoit, Miquel Gallardo
SCENOGRAPHY Xavier Erra, Xavier Saló and Delphine Lancelle
PUPPETEERS Olivier Benoit, Jean-Baptiste Fontanarosa and Asier Saenz de Ugarte
LIGHT DESIGN Daniel Ibor
TECHNICAL DIRECTION Jorge García or Sadock Mouelhi
TECHNIQUE Object theatre
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/12
TIME 75 minutes
LANGUAGE Spanish

Object theatre assumes a different view of the world surrounding us, it is an invitation to perceive in each object traces of the humanity that has created it. It is this human dimension of objects the production wishes to reveal to us.
In this adaptation of Molière’s ‘The Miser’, it is no longer money that everyone covets, but water. The characters of this visionary comedy become taps (at times dressed with a simple cloth), pipes and hoses...
Two actors manipulate these objects in front of the audience and give life to no less than twelve characters, offering us a fresh and funny version of this great classic.
This performance has been presented all over the world and has been awarded prizes on several occasions. It is a production in which the pleasure of acting, connecting with the audience and laughing together take precedence, while dealing with a theme as serious as the lack of natural resources.

The Tàbola Rassa theatre company was born out of a collaboration between Oliver Benoit and Miquel Gallardo when, together with Jordi Betran, created a production of Molière’s “The Miser”. After the debut of the Catalan version, the work was also translated by the pair into Spanish, French and English by Oliver Benoit and Asier Saenz de Ugarte with the help of translator Tom Godwin. In August 2004, Oliver Benoit took over as director of Tàbola Rassa and trained two new members: the French actor Jean-Baptiste Fontanarosa, to replace Miquel Gallardo in the French version, and the Basque actor Asier Saenz de Ugarte, for the Castilian, Catalan and English versions. Since its creation, having performed in more than 15 countries, and with warm responses from both audiences and critics, the company gained considerable recognition, and have been invited to present “The Miser”, hold courses, classes and participate in conferences.

“For me, and for most, the highlight was the Tàbola Rassa version of Moliere’s The Miser (L’Avaro); I’ve written about it before – it’s a simple tabletop setting with puppets made of bath-taps, showerheads, pipes and so on attached to pieces of cloth, manipulated by two consummate actor-puppeteers. It was very fast, very rude and extremely funny. The audience was entranced and gave it an ovation. Funny how the simplest means coupled with a brilliant idea can usually result in triumph”. - Penny Francis – Animations Online

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Teatro de Ferro

Portugal

Dura Dita Dura

Museu da Marioneta
12, 13 May at 10.30am and 10pm

TEXT Regina Guimarães
DIRECTION AND SCENOGRAPHY Igor Gandra
PUPPETS Teatro de Ferro
MUSIC Michael Nick
PERFORMER Igor Gandra
FADO / SONG Ana Deus
LIGHT DESIGN Rui Maia
SET UP DIRECTOR Virgínia Moreira
CONSTRUCTION WORKSHOP Gil Rovisco, Virgínia Moreira e Américo Castanheira – Tudo Faço
STAGE PHOTOGRAPHY Susana Neves
PRODUCTION DIRECTION Carla Veloso
TECHNIQUE Mixed
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/6
LANGUAGE Portuguese
TIME 50 minutes
Co-production: FIMFA Lx9, Festival Internacional de Marionetas do Porto, Festival Escrita na Paisagem

“Once upon a time there was a little boy that lived in a very small country facing to big ocean. It was said that in this country, big men and men of all sizes had thrown themselves at the sea looking for other countries and other men. But this happen a very long time ago, so much time that the little boy that we are talking about never wet his feet in the ocean…”

“Dura Dita Dura” tells the story of a little boy, Baltazar, that grows somewhere, in a lost little village of a forgotten Portugal. Baltazar is mute, but not deaf. His vivacity is unusual for a little boy and conflicts with the obscurantism that characterizes little Portugal. Baltazar is a silence scandal in a silenced country. But nobody chooses the place and time where we to be born.

“Dura Dita Dura” is a show for all ages, about the atmosphere of deaf terror that ruled for half a century a country where the walls had hears. Through an attentive look of small child, the objective is to show a very recent past, that tends however to fade in the “memory mists”. To us, this purpose seems to become urgent as there are people that now and everywhere are saying that the Salazar dictatorship was not that bad.

The Teatro de Ferro develops its work since 1999, in the universe of puppetry, movement and multimedia. Since 2003 has counted with the support of the Ministry of Culture. The company is located in the city of Gaia, with artistic direction of Igor Gandra, who received the award Revelação Ribeiro da Fonte, attributed by the Instituto das Artes.

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Akhe Theatre

Russia

Gobo. Digital Glossary

Teatro Maria Matos
14, 15 May at 10pm

DIRECTION Yana Tumina
PERFORMERS Maxim Isaev e Pavel Semchenko
LIGHT DESIGN Vadim Gololobov
MUSIC Andrey Sizintsev
VIDEO Oleg Mikhaylov
STAGE AND VIDEO INSTALLATION Maria Bykova
TECHNIQUE Objects and visual theatre
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/10
TIME 50 minutes
LANGUAGE Without words

One of Russia's best known independent theatre groups, Akhe will be again a guest at FIMFA this year. The group likes to call its stage productions “Engineer Theatre“, with a certain touch of irony since their performances are full of absurdities, strange objects and artistic quotations. By their special specifications it is appropriate to speak about Akhe as “Optical Theatre” or “Russian Engineering Theatre”. They like to consider themselves only as Operators. The Space is one of the main characters of the show. The Space manipulated by the Operators is valuable and sufficient by itself.

Akhe returns with more bizarre props and hand-made scenography, and another kaleidoscope of curious happenings and fantastic images… mixing installations, video, visual arts and photography.

“Gobo. Digital Glossary” is an attempt of portraying a mythical hero of the digital era, the Gobo. It mixes animation, cinema, painting, elements of nature and digital technology, oscillating between an installation and mini-performances. The set design is just a complex laboratory full of objects, cables, cameras, liquids, puppets, laser beams and electric guitars, set for this special poetic experimentation. Mini-cameras registrate the events that are projected in screens to obtain a kind of ‘multiple vision’ of the same fact.

A truly Dadaist enjoyment… poetical and incoherently fabulous like a story that can take us to where we would be afraid of dreaming, open our eyes and live an adventure.

From obscurity to light, from laugh to cry, from absurd to empathy…



Akhe Theatre was founded by three members of Boris Ponizovski theatre "Yes - No" (Maksim Isaev, Pavel Semtchenko, Vadim Vasiliev) in 1989. Immediately the company announced itself as independent (in style and form) and started their activity in performance, cinema and fine art.
From 1996 they consider themselves more like a theatre collective, creating for the regular (in classical terms) stage the performance "Catalogue of the Hero". Since then the group is a regular participant in theatre festivals in Russia and abroad. The members of the group also take part in different theatre projects with other groups and theatres: Derevo (Russ-Germ.), Lantaaren (Nederl.), Toihaus (Austr.), Slava Polunin (Russ.). They work as artists, stage designers, film directors, painters and designers.


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Gaspare Nasuto - Pulcinella di Mare

Italy

L’Antica Tradizione di Pulcinella

Museu da Marioneta
15, 16 May at 10pm
17 May at 11.30pm

CREATION AND PUPPETEER Gaspare Nasuto
TECHNIQUE Neapolitan traditional hand puppets
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/6
TIME 50 minutes
LANGUAGE Neapolitan

You cannot miss "The Ancient Tradition of Pulcinella”… Pulcinella as you have never seen before!

The original, authentic and inimitable Neapolitan Pulcinella. Five centuries of Neapolitan puppets melt together to give birth to the work of Gaspare Nasuto: the timbering of puppets finely carved in walnut and cherry-tree wood, the precise handling of the puppet show, the use of the swazzle ("pivetta") and the movement's fine art make the shows of Gaspare Nasuto (one of the most important authors and players of Pulcinella's mask in the world) full of strong emotion and magic.

Gaspare Nasuto started his activity in 1989; as a puppeteer and sculptor, he is considered one of the Masters of the Neapolitan puppet tradition, a true tipping point for whoever wants to approach the secrets of the Neapolitan "Guarattelle". The "Guarattelle" are an ancient kind of hand puppet created in Naples around the 16th century. The peculiarity of the show is the voice of Pulcinella achieved with the swazzle, an instrument hold by the puppeteer under his palate during the show. The striking and exclusive movement technique of the puppets and its powerful performance give the show a strong modernity.

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Cie Mossoux-Bonté

Belgium

Twin Houses

Teatro Maria Matos
16 May at 10pm
17 May at 5pm

AUTHOR AND PERFORMER Nicole Mossoux
DIRECTION Nicole Mossoux e Patrick Bonté
SET DESIGN Johan Daenen
COSTUMES Colette Huchard
MANNEQUINS/PUPPETS Jean-Pierre Finotto
ORIGINAL MUSIC Christian Genet
STAGE MANAGEMENT Mikha Wajnrych
TECHNICAL DIRECTION Pierre Stoffyn
TECHNIQUE Dance and puppets
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/12
TIME 60 minutes
LANGUAGE Without words
In co-production with Charleroi/Danses (Centre Chorégraphique de la Communauté Française Wallonie-Bruxelles), Atelier Sante-Anne and the Brigittines

Imagine finding yourself invaded by a multitude of beings who act through you without asking your opinion. They grab hold of one or another part of your body, creep in between your intentions and your gestures, emitting contradictory voices, strange discourses... “Twin Houses”, a multiple monologue, presents Nicole Mossoux and five articulate mannequins, in a confusion where one no longer knows who is manipulating who, who holds power over the other, the actor or the mannequin.

Nicole Mossoux's and Patrick Bonté's only foray into the domain of animated forms, in Twin Houses the dancer is confronted by its doubles… Since its premiere, the performance has toured continuously across the five continents.

Since meeting in 1985, Nicole Mossoux and Patrick Bonté have, in turn, made three films and twenty-two live performances.
On an edge between dance and theatre, their work aims to melt these two disciplines into a single language by exploring precise themes and expressing them through movement. Their performances, in which the actor or dancer’s presence is always fundamental, seek to create an atmosphere that touches the spectator — where his own self is the guide to the emotions he feels.
Over and above the unmistakable “style” of the company, each performance, be it intimate or involving a large cast, deals with a very separate and particular subject. Each creation, through theatricality, gesture and a combination of strangeness and familiarity, aims to find its own language. Jointly directed by a man and a woman, the company’s creative vision demonstrates, almost alternately, a real complementary of masculinity and femininity.
Nicole Mossoux and Patrick Bonté’s performances have been presented in approximately thirty different countries.

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La Chana Teatro

Spain

Entre Dilúvios

Museu da Marioneta
21, 22, 23 May at 10pm

AUTHOR AND DIRECTION Jaime Santos
DIRECTION ASSISTANCE Eric de Sarria
MUSIC Pep Pascual
LIGHT AND SOUND DESIGN Áurea Pérez
TECHNIQUE Object theatre
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/12
TIME 60 minutos
LANGUAGE Spanish

And God created humour...?
Biblical stories told with a lot of humour and uncommon objects… Through some biblical extracts as the Creation, the Paradise, Cain and Abel, the author narrates in a comic and poetic way some fundamental conflicts of man, his relation with space and time, his place in social organizations, his role inside the nature, his destiny, his foolishness.

The actor unfolds his perception of the story through metaphors, playing with objects and materials. But, don’t be afraid, the show is really very funny!

“Calvino used the words like objects in his work. I try to use objects like words, full of meanings” – Jaime Santos.

La Chana Teatro, whose artistic route is full of intelligent shows, is a company created in 1987 by Jaime Santos and Áurea Pérez, located in Salamanca. They have their very own special style of telling stories, like a game, always having the object, the word, the space and the interpretation as protagonists. Jaime Santos worked in theatre for 24 years and produced more than 20 shows. Besides being an actor, set designer, puppeteer and objects manipulator, he graduated in Hispanic Philology. The name “La Chana” was chosen by its sonority. “La Chana” has several meanings that he discovered gradually. One of them is that is the name of a very popular folk Spanish song, but also the name of a traditional game.

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Métalu A Chahuter

France

Pendule - Concerto de Objectos Animados

Teatro Maria Matos
21, 22, 23 May at 10 pm

CONCEPT, MUSICIANS AND PERFORMERS Man’Hu e Jéranium
TECHNIQUE Objects and music
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/8
TIME 40 minutes
LANGUAGE Without words

Day to day objects including bicycle wheels, pendulums, lamps and ball bearings have been placed end to end to create a human sized “musical mechanism”. As both protagonists and observers, the artists operate this with great care and precision.
As the objects are brought to life we discover their sounds and movements.

A genuine treat for the eyes and ears, this show takes us on an exciting journey to another world. Your eyes won’t believe in your ears!

Two individuals cultivate the fall of the bodies, germinate inactivity and collect sounds. Technology, with its increasing tendency towards miniaturization, makes the mechanisms that we can touch, observe, repair, modify disappear … the machines that we use are always smaller and more difficult to understand, making almost impossible human intervention. In “Pendule” the musicians experiment and play through an open device, with the central mechanisms at sight. This allows the audience to see what it feels and to feel what it sees. Jéranium and Man'Hu manipulate a mechanism made of recycled and assembled materials. The mechanical system propagates the movement between its components and multiplies the sounds. Lights and shadows enhance the spectacular effects of this machine.

Musician, factotum, Jéranium creates sound machines from recycling materials. Fond of mechanical music, he splits his activities in different musical projects, working with the improvisation group Silent Block. He is the author and capo-orchestra of Léon Napakatbra, street mechanical concert based on fair complex paraphernalia. Meanwhile he organizes interactive exhibitions of sound machines as Le Son des Choses and Les Guitares.
Builder and decorator, Man’Hu works with Jeranium in the production of Léon Napakatbra, Kiang and on the submarine workshop el Axolot. With Delphine Sekulak and Marie Bouchacourt founds the scenography collective Hirsute and prepares set designs for the shows of the collective Métalu A Chahuter.
Métalu A Chahuter is a collective that supports the creations of its members, aiming to offer the same opportunities to all the projects, thanks to a technical and administrative platform based on a joint economy. The collective gathers around twenty artists and technicians specialized in experimental creation and street art: puppets, sound machines, serigraphy, video installations and scenography. With about twenty productions in their career, they organize every year a street theatre festival and ten local events.

“At the end of the show, expect to be in love with the scene” – Cathy Blisson, Télérama

“An installation of rare poetry” - Sylvain Siclier, Le Monde

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Théâtre du Petit Miroir

France

The Magic Child and the Dragon King

Museu do Oriente
23 May at 9.30pm
24 May at 4pm

Extension
Teatro Municipal da Guarda - Guarda
30 May at 4pm

DIRECTION AND PUPPETEER Jean-Luc Penso
TECHNIQUE Chinese traditional shadow puppets
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/7
TIME 55 minutes
LANGUAGE Spanish

A musical show of Chinese shadow puppets.

Despite his efforts to behave himself, Lo Zha, the Magic Child ends up making mistakes far bigger than himself. And so it comes about that the tiger gets a beating, the arrogant Dragon King and his swaggering son set up a wail, ghosts get spooked and the King of the underworld is driven mad.
Lo Zha will have to go through many trials yet before the Emperor of Jade himself will intervene to have his true merits recognised.

The Chinese shadow puppets used in this show are of finely-chiselled and coloured buffalo hide, and are mostly old.
Having survived the Cultural Revolution when most of them were burned, these pieces are in the Théâtre du Petit Miroir's own collection.
The Magic Child and the Dragon King has been shown throughout France, Europe, in Islands of the Indian Ocean and in Asia.

The Théâtre du Petit Miror was founded by Jean-Luc Penso. Inspired by the Chinese dramatic arts he presents, since 1978, puppet shows with Chinese traditional puppets, besides other creations inspired on the great subjects from the worldwide mythology and French repertoire.
This distance is supported by a rigorous technique acquired in Taiwan, during five years, with the master Li Tien Lu, one of the key personalities of the puppet world, a marvellous artist and great pedagogue that died in 1998. The master Li Tien Lu contributed strongly to the safeguard of his art, even teaching until the end of his days. He was nominated a “national lively treasure” and one of the pillars of the Taiwan’s identity.
The Théâtre du Petit Miror, inheritor of this great puppet master, continues to reveal this Chinese tradition. The company has several productions staged in France and in Asia, where it makes numerous tours, besides a cooperation with the company Yi Wan Jan de Taipei. It was the first puppet occidental company invited to perform in China after the Cultural Revolution. In 1990 Jean-Luc Penso learned the techniques of the Chinese shadows theatre with a master of Taiwan. Jean-Luc Penso, encouraged by his master Li Tien Lu to use Chinese puppet techniques in no Asiatic contexts, has since 1985 expanded his repertoire including works of European tradition. In 2007 he was rewarded by the Taiwan-France Cultural Foundation for his contribute in the cultural relations between France and Taiwan. Since 2000 that Théâtre du Petit Miror has a small place in Paris, where they present regularly shows and workshops.

“A Frenchman brings Chinese theatre to life in all its magic. Last night the Théâtre du Petit Miroir played "The Magic Child and the Dragon King". The public was amused and appreciative, and often broke into applause, proving that this traditional art re-interpreted by westerners, brings us a taste of something 'other'... Though the show is played out by shadow puppets, the characters' bodies, their hands and their feet, are alive and highly accomplished in their movements, with beautiful shapes and well-drawn characters, showcasing every side of this traditional art. The music, the lights and the scenes add to the success of the show” - Macau Daily News

“An enchanted mixed public of children and adults… at the Museum of Asian Arts (Nice) at a performance of Théâtre du Petit Miroir. Just back from a tour in China this theatre... directed by a high-level sinologist, Jean-Luc Penso, presented the Magic Child and the Dragon King... Against a white backdrop fragments of dream drifted by…” - Nice-Matin

“A very beautiful, poetic tale told with music and song.” - Télérama

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Tof Théâtre

Belgium

Sur la Dune

Centro Cultural de Belém
Sala de Ensaio
26, 27, 28, 29 May at 11am
30 May at 11.30am
31 May at 11.30am

CONCEPT, WRITER, DIRECTION AND PUPPETS Alain Moreau
PUPPETEERS Julie Antoine, François Ebouelé and Toztli Godines de Dios
SCENOGRAPHY Alaine Moreau with the puppeteers help
MUSIC Max Vandervorst
LIGHT DESIGN AND STAGE-MANAGING Dimitri Joukovsky
SCENOGRAPHY ASSISTANCE Céline Robaszynski helped by Fredo Lubansu
CONSTRUCTIONS Michel Van Brussel and Simon Janne
CREATION ASSISTANTS Karine Birgé, Emilie Plazolles e Daniel Van Hassel
TECHNIQUE Full-view manipulation
FOR AUDIENCES OVER From 3 to 5 years
TIME 60 minutes
LANGUAGE Without words

Show without words for three puppeteers, two directors and one hundred people.

“In a picture, the story of René being pursued by a canary…
As I write these lines, the show is being created. The dream is my guide. There is a bathtub, sand, the sea and many other things ... and puppets. The very small ones and the very big ones mingle cheerfully. I see this show in an intimist form.
The sweet madness, the gentleness and the surrealism will have its place, for sure...” – Alain Moreau.

The Belgian company Tof Théâtre was born in 1987, an initiative of Alain Moreau, during the creation of the show “Le Tour du Bloc”. Initially created for adults, a version for the young public was also presented. It was performed more than 500 times all over the world. Follower of the “reduced realism”, Tof changes the traditional techniques of manipulation and offers the puppeteer to the eyes of the public, using full-view manipulation. The puppet is always in the centre of their shows, its size varying between 5 centimetres to 5 meters, for adults, children and very often, to both. The company also makes street shows, like “Bistouri“, “East Bénévoles” and “Fritkot“, touring and receiving numerous prizes in several festivals.

The company’s work is recognized by its technical quality and set design. In their shows they use an imaginary language based on sounds, sonorous effects and onomatopoeias. This universal and simple language is understandable by all, allows the company to present its shows to all audiences. They love the little stories of daily live, which narrate the epic banality, where the daily live is gently ridiculized. Frequently without words, with humour and emotions, the Tof Théâtre lend us their affectionate and critical magnifying glass, so we can enjoy in detail our little dramas.

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Márcia Lança

Portugal

Dos Joelhos para Baixo

Museu da Marioneta
27 de Maio às 22h

CREATION, DRAWING AND PERFORMER Márcia Lança
ARTISTIC COLABORATION Iuri Albarran and Tiago Hespanha
MUSIC AND LIGHT DESIGN Nuno Morão
PHOTOGRAPHY Iuri Albarran
ARTISTIC RESIDENCE Espaço do Tempo, Montemor-o-Novo and Atelier Re.al, Lisboa
PRODUCTION Vagar
TECHNIQUE Dance and objects
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/8
TIME 35 minutes
LANGUAGE Without words
Finalist of the Programme Young Artists Young

A Márcia Lança solo about a paper city …

About “Dos Joelhos para Baixo” or “From the Knees Down”:
“Starting from a drawing in the ATL of the school n°6 from the Campo de Ourique neighbourhood, where pencil traces were erased by rubber, I noticed that erasing without leaving traces was impossible. After this episode I spent one year drawing. I chose a moment of the day in a specific place and draw the itinerary that I and other persons had use. So, for us to move across the paper, was necessary to erase and drawn ourselves again in another part of the sheet. I noticed that the distances and movements of the individuals could be redone by the trace that was left while erasing. I put this question on the stage, going from the “sheet” support to the “space” support.

I kept the paper sheet and worked in the studio making it interact with me. Of these experiences a series of actions with men and women of paper appeared, that initially could be resumed to the transformation of the paper matter in others. These characters wore exposed to sequences of events that determined their participation in the piece. Slowly, a paper city starts to appear”. – Márcia Lança

“The show follows a contemporary line… A work of detailed and sensible construction in paper, with critical sense and humour”. - Cláudia Galhos, Revista Actual, Expresso

“A dreamlike paper world signed by Márcia Lança... In “From the Knees Down ”, Márcia Lança is influenced by childhood memories: pencil traces in a paper sheet and the impossibility of erasing them, and the demand of sketching routes that remain clear. This graphic starting point is turned into a lively form lifted between the body of the performer and the paper structure” - Bellini, B. e Oliva, L.,Jornal do Vie Scena Contemporanea Festival, Modena.

“The raw delicacy of a paper world... The performance of Márcia Lança bewitches for the simplicity but, especially, by a critical dimension that manages to be imposed by a clear efficiency and a subtle violence... “From the Knees Down” is the first show of a young artist who managed to find a language that fascinates and makes us think. - Fumagalli, A., Jornal do Vie Scena Contemporanea Festival, Modena.

Márcia Lança was born in Beja in 1982. She studies Anthropology in Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas de Lisboa. In 2006 she was finalist of the Program “Young Artists Young” with the solo “From the Knees Down”. She also worked as a performer with the choreographers John Fiadeiro (“Existência e Para onde vai a luz quando se apaga?”), Cláudia Dias (co-creation of “3 Figuras do Excesso” and collaboration in “Visita Guiada”). She collaborated in 2005/06 with Olga Mesa in Pôle Sud, Strasbourg. She started her education in Show Arts in Chapitô (1999/02). From her dance formation she points out ex.e.r.ce 05 from CCN of Montpellier, the basic course of Movement Analysis by the IAM (2004) the Contemporary Dance Course and Movement Research in the SNDO of Amesterdam (2003), the Research and Choreographic Creation Course in Forum-Dança (2002) and continuous formation in C.E.M. (2001/04). She studied Voice in Regional Conservatory do Baixo Alentejo (1998/99) and developed vocal composition with Francisco D'Orey, Catherine Rey, Meredith Monk and Lúcia Lemos.
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Familie Flöz

Germany

Hotel Paradiso

Teatro Nacional D. Maria II
28, 29 May at 9.30 pm

CREATION Anna Kistel, Sebastian Kautz, Thomas Rascher, Hajo Schüler, Frederik Rohn and Michael Vogel
PERFORMERS Anna Kistel, Sebastian Kautz, Thomas Rascher and Frederik Rohn
DIRECTION Michael Vogel
SET DESIGN Michael Ottopal
MASKS Hajo Schüler
COSTUME DESIGNER Eliseu R. Weide
LIGHT DESIGN Reinhard Hubert
SOUND DESIGN Dirk Schröder
PRODUCTION MANAGER Gianni Bettucci
CO-PRODUCTION Familie Flöz, Theaterhaus Stuttgart and Theater Duisburg
TECHNIQUE Masks
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/10
TIME 80 minutes
LANGUAGE Without words

The road to heaven leads through hell.

Bizarre things happen at the peculiar “Hotel Paradiso”, a small family business painstakingly held together by the female head of the family.

There are four stars adorning the gate and a mineral spring promises the healing of psychological and physical hardships. But there are dark clouds on the horizon. The son dreams of true love while fiercely battling over the control of the hotel with his sister. The maid steals from guests and the cook dissects much more than just pork…



When the first corpse surfaces, guests and staff alike enter a whirl of nasty events. Between dizzying mountain ranges a dark, bottomless abyss opens that no one can escape. The hotel’s demise only seems to be a matter of time because dead bodies are always bad for business.

Familie Flöz was never darker, never more sarcastic. An alpine nightmare full of black humour, stormy feelings and a touch of melancholia.

“This is real treat!” - The Stage, UK. ““Non stop laughter. It's an unforgettable show”” - La Republica, Itália.

The Familie Flöz was created in 1994 and is an international pool of theatre makers, actors, musicians, dancers, directors, mask, light and costume designers, dramatic advisors and other good souls from ten nations.
Through constant rediscovery of century-old disciplines such as acting, mask theatre, dance, clownery, acrobatics, magic, and improvisation, Familie Flöz creates theatre experiences of a unique poetry.
The “best German comedy troupe” is based in Berlin since 2001, having enchanted audiences from Australia to Zimbabwe, China to Mexico, has been awarded numerous international prizes and have long ago become one of German theatre’s most successful exports, like “Ristorante immortale” (1998), “Teatro Delusio” (2004) and “Infinita” (2007). “Hotel Paradiso”, their last creation, will be opening its door at the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II.

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La Tête dans le Sac - Marionnettes

Switzerland

Fantômas Probablement

Museu da Marioneta
29, 30 May at 10pm

DIRECTION, CONSTRUCTION AND PUPPETEERS Cécile Chevalier and Franck Fedele
MUSIC Géraldine Schenkel, Seby Ciurcina, Marcello
LIGHT DESIGN Florence Guillermin
LIGHT AND SOUND Emilie Poirier
TECHNIQUE Mixed
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/8
TIME 70 minutes
LANGUAGE French and Portuguese



“Fantômas!
-What did you say?
-I said… Fantômas.
-And what does that mean?
-Nothing... Everything!
-But what is it?
-No one... And yet, yes, it is someone!
-And what does this someone do?
-spreads terror!
Opening lines of “Fantômas”, the first novel in the series.

Puppets from the underworld… A special show, surreal, revolutionary and terrifying, with twenty three puppets and two puppeteers, about the universe of… Fantômas!



Fantômas is the Lord of Terror, the Genius of Evil, the arch-criminal anti-hero of a series of 32 French thrillers written before the First World War by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. He carries out the most appalling crimes: putting sulphuric acid in the perfume dispensers at a Parisian department store, releasing plague-infested rats on an ocean liner, or forcing a victim to witness his own execution by placing him face-up in a guillotine. Fantômas is the master of a thousand disguises and the leader of a vast army of “apaches” (street thugs). Fantômas is anyone and no one, everywhere and nowhere, waging an implacable war against the very bourgeois society in which he moves with such ease and assurance. “His shadow hovers over the strangest mysteries, and his traces are found near the most inexplicable crimes.”

Dark puppets, from the underground and street thugs, show us their point of view, through their deformed imagination take us in the pursuit of Fantômas, through dark streets, dangerous places, cabarets… Their adventures never end, without logic, its always Fantômas, reappearing with new identities… perhaps the only way to arrest Fantômas is maybe… to become Fantômas!

The company "La Tête dans le Sac – Marionnettes" is a puppet company. A family in constant expansion, like the universe, that has, says unknown sources, twenty three puppets and two puppeteers. It’s difficult to know with precision when they started their puppetry activities. Its members are all creators and actors, artists and thinkers, who work together. They read all the 32 volumes of Fantômas, dividing its 12800 pages randomly. From these exercises, they made a free and collective interpretation of the Fantômas myth, supporting the dramaturgic structure in the words of Apollinaire: “From the imaginative standpoint Fantômas is one of the richest works that exist”. Read more!

Stuffed Puppet Theatre

Netherlands

Vampyr

Teatro Nacional D. Maria II
30 May at 9.30pm
31 May at 4pm

CONCEPT, PUPPETS AND PUPPETEER Neville Tranter
TEXT Jan Veldman
DIRECTION Allan Zipson
SOUNDSCAPE Ferdinand Bakker e Kim Hayworth
LIGHT DESIGN Desirée Van Gelderen
TECHNIQUE Mixed
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/14
TIME 80 minutes
LANGUAGE English
A production of Stuffed Puppet
in co-production with Schauspielhaus Wien

When a father becomes stranded with his sick daughter at a camping, their hope of finding help turns into a nightmare, as the invisible inhabitants of the camping take over: an old vampire, whose eye has fallen on the sick girl, and his teenage vampire son with his guardian angel. The greedy and malicious owner of the camping and his old guilt-ridden helper only make the situation worse.

“Vampyr” is a fairy tale, spiced with horror and comedy. Its Scandinavian setting pays homage to Hans Christian Andersen. At first glance it tells about fathers, their sons and a daughter. Or do they stand for all human relationships and for all things that, one day, must come to an end? And yet there are new beginnings.

And one day it will feel just as real or unreal as a fairy tale.

Schicklgruber was based on historical events. In Vampyr, however, Neville Tranter turns away from history to create a world of fantasy, that is both strange and curiously recognizable. He lets his fascination for myths and fairy tales be a source of inspiration. The distance from reality that is created by the use of puppets and by the genre of the fairy tale may help to bring to life very recognizable experiences and feelings.

In “Vampyr”, as in all of Neville’s theatrical work, we experience the tragic limitations of our life. Characters, that struggle with their origins, with circumstances and surroundings and with the inevitable passing of time.

“The vampire father, Olav, is the most beautiful of the puppets: very large and with glittering eyes” - Volkskrant

“The girl-puppet (Inger)... beats many experienced Ophelia-actrisses” - Trouw

“The vampire-son is the most moving, with his gawky limbs and desperate eyes … a lonely boy that finds a companion in the girl” - NRC

Neville Tranter (1955, Toowoomba, Australia) completed his drama studies with the US director Robert Gist in Queensland in 1976, having also trained with the Billbar Puppet Theatre. He founded the Stuffed Puppet Theatre the same year. After the Stuffed Puppet Theatre had taken part in the Festival of Fools in Amsterdam in 1978, Neville Tranter moved to the Netherlands, where his visual and emotional adult puppet theatre developed to assume its present form. In his own brutal, ruthless but poetic way, he confronts the audience with their fears and dreams, urges and desires, personified by what are often life size talking puppets. Combining a minimal decor with sophisticated music, lighting and sound, using the oldest devices of the theatre as well as state of the art technology, solo on stage, with nothing but his puppets plus a number of assistants behind the scenes, Neville Tranter is capable of evoking images that the audience will not forget for a long time. His combination of down to earth humour, deadly seriousness and virtuoso puppetry has already made permanent converts of many who had presumed puppetry had nothing to offer them.

Within his group Stuffed Puppet Neville Tranter developed his typical style of visual theatre with human size puppets. Read more!

Thalias Kompagnons

Germany

What does Red do
on Thursday?

Museu da Marioneta
31 May at 3.30pm
1 June at 10.30am

IDEA AND PERFORMER Joachim Torbahn
DIRECTION Ruta Platais
TECHNIQUE Direct Painting
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/4
TIME 40 minutes
LANGUAGE Almost without words

A colourful story in seven parts for children from the age of 4.
Live painting with music by Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy.

Can painting be performed live? Can you let children take part in the undesigned voyage of discovery of a painter being guided by his inspiration?
Do children also enjoy playing with lines, shapes and colours in a sensuous way? What stories emerge and fade away during the painting process?
Perhaps it is these very stories that give the finished painting its meaning...?

Joachim Torbahn, painter and performer, and the director Ruta Platais found together the answers to these questions.
The result: a painting in seven parts, almost without words, live painting on stage, behind a transparent screen.

Thalias Kompagnons mixes painting and theatre, awakening the children's creativity through the abstract side of the works presented by Joachim Torbahn”.

The colours have been mixed, the brushes are ready.
The painter stands behind the transparent canvas, ready to go…

“A subtle, minimal performance... unpretentious, without pressure to laugh... a didactic play with its own dynamic, a workshop without know-it-alls." – Abendzeitung

"Torbahn shows by example that the spontaneous enjoyment of movement and rhythm and the seemingly 'incomplete' images created have an infectious vitality and give your imagination wings... Not just recommended, but entertaining as well!" - Nürnberger Nachrichten

Thalias Kompagnons was founded in 1990 by Tristan Vogt and Joachim Torbahn as a professional freelance touring company. In 1997 the company (in partnership with Theater Salz & Pfeffer) opened their own theatre in Nurnberg, Germany. They get support from the City of Nurnberg, the county of Mittelfranken, and the government of Bavaria.
Thalias Kompagnons tours to theatre-festivals both nationally and internationally, including Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland, Slovenia, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Israel, South Korea, Japan and Australia.
Their productions present an interesting mix between puppets, theatre, painting, music and animation and with their shows of theatre/painting – live painting/music they have created a special synthesis of art and theatre. Read more!

Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company

Taiwan

The Beauty of Taiwanese Puppet Theatre

Museu da Marioneta
5, 6 June at 10pm
7 June at 3.30pm

ARTISTIC DIRECTION/TECHNIQUE Wu Shanshan
PUPPETEERS Huang Wushan and Lai Shi-an
MANAGING DIRECTOR Robin Ruizendaal
TECHNIQUE Taiwanese traditional hand puppets
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/7
LANGUAGE Without words
TIME 45 minutes

The 79 year-old puppet master Chen Xihuang is the most celebrated puppeteer in Taiwan. He started performing puppet theatre at the age of thirteen with the famous puppeteer Li Tianlu. His great-grandfather was a teacher of the emperor at the court in Peking. At the present the master still lives in an apartment in his great-grandfather’s huge traditional mansion in Taipei. Over a period of 60 years, Chen developed and improved the traditional glove puppet theatre performance technique and raised it to unprecedented levels. He performed in over 30 countries around the world and his versatility, background and personality make him a unique character in the Taiwanese arts.

During the show the audience will see the delicate movements of the main characters, such as the young lady, the scholar, but also the clowns and the villains, as well as exciting fighting scenes. In this fascinating theatre performances we will experience the virtuosity of Taiwanese puppet performance.

The company Taiyuan Puppet Theatre was founded by Paul Lin in 2001. The company performs traditional puppet theatre while finding new and creative ways to further enhance the skils of puppeteers such as Chen Xihuang, as well Taiwanese puppet carvers, designers and writers. The company is based at the Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet theatre Museum in Dadaocheng, the old centre of Taipei. Robin Ruizendaal his their creative director, script writer, designer and a researcher with a ph.D. in sinology on Chinese marionette theatre, and director of the the Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet theatre Museum. The company has performed in over twenty countries around the world, in many different venues, such as the Purcell Room and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Casa Mila in Barcelona, the Traditional Opera House in Hanoi, but also in the countryside of Cambodja and Central and South America, and of course, in streets and theatres of old Taipei. Read more!

Madalena Victorino

Portugal

Lembranças

Museu da Marioneta
5, 6 June at 8pm and 11pm

COLLECTIVE CREATION BY Madalena Victorino with Ana Cloe, Ainhoa Vidal, Carla Chambel, Claúdia Gaiolas, Catarina Requeijo, Cláudio Silva, Joana Providência, José Abreu, Letícia Liesenfeld, Lucília Raimundo, Mafalda Saloio, Miguel Fragata, Nicolas Brites and Paula Diogo
TECHNIQUE Theatre, dance and objects
FOR AUDIENCES OVER M/8
TIME 90 minutes
LANGUAGE Portuguese
Project Culturgest

“Lembranças” or “Remeberings” is a show in miniature… full of poetry, stories, performers, objects, moments that fill and warm you up: theatre and dance are possible in any time or space. It lives from the instant and from the abyss of the excessive proximity between who watches and who performs. It’s uncommon and fresh. Its lightness allows you to keep it in your soul pocket.

These are stories that happen where you want and when you want them to. In historical or abandoned buildings, in open air, gardens or squares, in the country or villages, inside cars or even offices.

Little stories between theatre and dance that embody an extraordinary poetry world. They last five to ten minutes each and offer you an unforgettable experience. Several actors present many stories, using humour, love, terror and action, amusing, enchanting and intriguing us all.

To watch these stories you have to follow the twinkling lights. When they are off the magic happens, in some special place and it will be illuminated by the viewer. In the end, the journey will continue and the lights will lead somewhere else.

“... theatre plays in a space where we never imagined that theatre could be done... A stage where love stories are told... Impossible love stories performed, imagine, with the help of two peanuts…” – Paula Rocha, Jornal de Notícias

Madalena Victorino studied contemporary dance at the London School of Contemporary Dance and graduated as a Dance teacher at the University of London, Goldsmith’s College / Laban Centre for Movement and Dance. She is a choreographer and teacher, having worked extensively in choreography, dance education and the relationship between art and society. Madalena has created several site-specific works that involve collaboration between professional artists and amateurs of all ages and backgrounds, in no conventional places, like factories, parking, museums, forests…
Between 1996 and 2008 she was the pedagogical and animation coordinator of the Department of Arts and Pedagogy in the Fundação Centro Cultural de Belém. Between 2000 and 2004, with Giacomo Scalisi, co-directed the Projecto Europeu de Artes do Espectáculo para um Público Jovem, Percursos.
Read more!