WHS [Finland]

“Lähtö / Départ”
SÃO LUIZ TEATRO MUNICIPAL
7 and 8 May at 9pm (Wednesday and Thursday)
FIMFA Lx14 opening show | Portuguese Premiere
Direction: Kalle Nio Choreography: Vera Selene Tegelman, Kalle Nio Performers: Kalle Nio, Vera Selene Tegelman Costumes: Mila Moisio, Kaisa Rissanen Music and sound design: Samuli Kosminen Lighting: Jere Mönkkönen Videos: Matias Boettge, Kalle Nio Stage technicians: Leena Nio, Kaisa Rissanen Photos: Tom Hakala Production: WHS Supported by: Les Migrateurs / Associés pour les Arts du Cirque, The Finnish National Theatre, Kone Foundation, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Circus Info Finland Technique: Objects, video, magic, dance For audiences over: +12 Running time: 60 min. Language: Without words

There is a woman and a man, who have a complicated relationship. Confused, they stand on a stage, surrounded by clothes. Feelings and thoughts are expressed through the movement of their bodies – and the movement of the clothes, which have a life of their own.
Lähtö / Départ is the latest production of visual theatre & circus company WHS, directed by the visual artist Kalle Nio. The performance brings to the stage a couple that has drifted apart from each other and is now floating in the middle of dreamlike imagery and illusions. Inspired by the work of 19th century magicians’ stage illusions, the performance creates a mysterious atmosphere where absurd humor and tragedy alternate. The piece will provide a unique theatre experience in which circus, magic, dance, clothing design and visual arts merge. It will blow you away!
Large-scale video projections enhance the piece. Twisted black and white cinema style and cinematic tricks and effects flow from the screen on to the stage. The furniture on the stage turns into constructions that challenge the laws of gravity, creating a space of instability where the couple tries to resolve their feelings. Everything is in constant state of transformation.
The piece borrows its themes from the intense depictions of Michelangelo Antonioni’s films and asks whether it is possible to confront another person again and again as a stranger. The absurdness and miscommunication in relationships is brought into focus, as the performers communicate through the transformations of the clothing and the objects. The dreamlike, twisted soundscape of the piece is created by composer Samuli Kosminen.
  
BIO
WHS is a visual theatre / contemporary circus group from Finland. The productions of the group have been a crucial factor behind the rise of Finnish new circus that has rapidly occurred in the past decade. In the performances of the group new circus has become a very modern, independent and continually changing form of expression, that other arts, especially video image, compliment. In the press the performances have been called avant-garde also in the larger contexts of theatre and art in general. The performances have been on the sharp edge of the latest developments of theatre as well as circus.
The group has taken their eight previous performances across 30 countries, visiting over a hundred world-famous festivals, circuses, theatres and puppet theatres in Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Slovak and Czech Republics as well as USA, Brazil, Columbia, Argentina, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Kalle Nio is a magician and a visual artist from Helsinki. In his work he examines the new kinds of expression possibilities provided by video image and its capacities related to time and space. He has graduated from The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. As a magician Nio has specialised in developing new tricks and new kinds of magic. His inventions have been published in the most important professional magic publications such as the MAGIC-Magazine. Year 2000 he won third price in the world championships of magic (FISM) in the Inventions category. In addition to his work as a magician, Nio has worked as a director, editor and animator in TV programs, commercials and short films.
Samuli Kosminen is one of Finland’s top percussionists and sampling masters. As a drummer, percussionist, composer and producer, Kosminen has collaborated with a gargantuan array of artists such as Kronos Quartet (USA), Valgeir Sigurðsson (ICE), Jónsi (from Sigur Rós, ICE), KTU (USA-Finland), Emiliana Torrini (ICE) and many others. For the past decade his main collaborators have been Icelandic band Múm and Kimmo Pohjonen. As the Kluster duo with Pohjonen, they have performed in Europe, America and Japan. The Pohjonen / Kosminen duo were one half of the original KTU band with Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson) and they composed the award winning Jade Warrior film- score. With Múm, he has toured Europe, America, Australia and Japan and recorded four albums. Originally a drummer, now an explorer of flea- market percussion, beat devices, melody-making toys, clonky/clunky machines and tuneful data processors, Kosminen has discovered strange, new dimensions of rhythm and sound.
Mila Moisio and Kaisa Rissanen are known for the Finnish clothing brand TAUKO. They make costume designs for various performing artists, theatre and new circus pieces, and installations. TAUKO builds their designs on recycled and often unconventional materials and techniques, which inspire novel ways to design and manufacture costumes. Environmental and social issues related to clothing are also present in their work.
Vera Selene Tegelman graduated in 2009 from Department of Dance in Theatre Academy of Helsinki. As a student she already worked as a dancer with various choreographers including Virva Talonen, Heli Meklin, Tommi Kitti and Teemu Kyytinen. After graduation she has been working in productions by Dance theatre Tsuumi and Dance theatre Glims & Gloms. Latest collaborations has been with choreographer Elina Pirinen ‘Tanssitaideteos’ and ‘Nonfiction’ by Milla Koistinen.

Puppentheater Halle [Germany]

“Buddenbrooks”

MARIA MATOS TEATRO MUNICIPAL
9 and 10 May at 9.30pm (Friday and Saturday)
Portuguese premiere

Direction: Moritz Sostmann Text: Thomas Mann Adaptation: John von Düffel Stage designs and costumes: Klemens Kühn Puppets: Hagen Tilp Dramaturgy: Maria V. Linke In cooperation of: Annegret Hahn Performers: Kerstin Daley-Baradel, Ines Heinrich-Frank, Katharina Kummer, Nils Dreschke, Philipp Pleßmann, Lars Frank Technicians: Henryk Drewniok, Daniel Schreiner Photos: Gert Kiermeyer Technique: Full-view manipulation - hyperrealistic puppets For audiences over: +16 Running time: 150 min., including break Language: German with Portuguese subtitles

A touch of madness, a dose of humour, six extraordinary actors, and fifteen disturbingly realistic puppets combine to bring a highly entertaining social fresco to life before our eyes, inspired in the Thomas Mann's great novel.

Demonstrated by the three siblings Thomas, Christian and Tony Buddenbrook there are three lifestyles fighting against each other, three tries to deal with an inherited legacy and a constantly changing world. They start the battle and each of them fails because of reality, their expectations and themselves as individuals. Thomas tries to come up to the responsibility of replacing his father and has to find out, that he is already too different from his father. Christian, the denier, who tries to escape from his family and traditions, loses his courage quickly. He isn’t really able to manage to create his life the way he wants. And also the formerly easygoing, fun-loving Tony fails after two unlucky marriages due to her own demands and turns to highbred affectation.

In nearly distressing clarity the questions of our contemporary existence are asked. What expectations do we have concerning our life? Is there a legacy we have to maintain? How do we handle that? Are we afraid of losing everything that previous generations fought for? Do we still feel equal to the globalised world? Do we have a chance to create our lives on our own at all, or are we just “links of a chain”, knowing that we only live following the legalities of fate?

An amazing show with an exceptional manipulation!

The Puppentheater Halle is one of the most respectable European companies and celebrates this year its 60th anniversary!

“Moritz Sostmann staged the material edited by John von Düffel as strict and respectful, but also as sensual as possible and with well distributed punchlines. The result is exciting theatre… amazing.”
- Andreas Montag, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung

“The verve with which the actors create different characteristics and personality developments through the puppets, nearly reminds of Stanislawinski (…).”
- Anke Meyer, Double

“With a dry sense of humour, reflective and with wonderful puppets made by Hagen Tilp – a joy having a long look into their faces. (…).”
- Alexandra Lutzenberger, Landsberger Tageblatt

“The puppets, which perform the downfall of the merchant family from the city Lübeck, seem astoundingly lively. The observer becomes witness to a perfect symbiosis between actor and puppet. An outstanding illusion.”
- Nürnberger Nachrichten

   

BIO Puppentheater Halle

Halle’s puppet theatre was founded in 1954, and was restructured in 1995 by Christoph Werner, who at that time was its artistic director and who is now its managing director. The Puppentheater Halle’s work involves an unusual combination of drama and puppet theatre. Its adaptations of children’s books for audiences aged between 5 and 12 and its productions for adults in the evening programme bring home the relationship between the creators and their creatures to audiences of some 20 000 theatregoers each year. The Puppentheater Halle stages five productions each year, one or two of which are for the family programme and are coproductions with other theatres, e.g. the Wiener Festwochen, the Schauspiel Köln, the Staatsschauspiel Stuttgart and the Volksbühne Berlin. In 2002, a new two-stage performance venue opened on Halle’s Kulturinsel (cultural island). Since 2009, the Puppentheater Halle has been based in the building of the newly-founded Theater, Oper und Orchester GmbH Halle.

The ensemble stages guest performances around the world in countries including Canada and India as well as attending many festivals within Germany, such as the Berlin children’s and youth theatre meeting “Augenblick mal!” Its productions Kannst du pfeifen Johanna (Can You Whistle, Johanna) (1999) and Die Schöne und das Biest (Beauty and the Beast) (2002) won the TRAUMSPIELE festival award of North-Rhine/Westphalia and were broadcast on the German television station ZDF.

Plexus Polaire [France - Norway]

“Opéra Opaque”

MUSEU DA MARIONETA
10 and 11 May at 4pm (Saturday and Sunday)
Portuguese premiere

Direction: Yngvild Aspeli Puppeteers: Polina Borisova, Pierre Tual Sound design: Guro Skumsnes Moe Puppets: Yngvild Aspeli, Polina Borisova e Priscille Du Manoir Stage design: Gunhild Mathea Olaussen Costumes: Sylvia Denais Lighting design: David Farine Produced in co-operation with: Compagnie Philippe Genty (FR) Co-pruduction: Teater Innlandet (NO), La MCNN, Centre de Création et de Production (FR) Supported by: Direction des Affaires Culturelles - DRAC Bourgogne (FR), Norsk Kulturråd (NO), Hedmark Fylkeskommune (NO), Spenn.no (NO), Fond for Lyd og Bilde (NO), Fond for Utøvende Kunstnere (NO) In collaboration with: Turnéorganisasjon for Hedmark (NO) Diffusion: Sarah Favier Photos: Kristin Bengston Hagen Technique: Full-view manipulation and shadows For audiences over: +8 Running time: 45 min. Language: Without words

Welcome to Madame Silva’s fabulously strange and macabre cabaret! Witness spectacular acts of life and death, crazy humour and the grand finale where Madame Silva faces her own fear!

The story of her origin disappears into the nights of the world, and the many legends of her past are full of contradictory anecdotes. Some people talk of a strange, mythical place deep in Siberia, in a lost village where the streets are covered with cobblestones. Other mention her name in connection with an abandoned castle ruin in Brittany, whose existence can only be confirmed by a few obsolete documents. Ancient rumours claim that she came from the depths of the dark, Norwegian forests, and some suggest that she boasts a certain connection to the hereafter. There are even those who suggest that she came from the unspeakable continents on “the other side”. However, one thing is certain, despite all the different legends: she sends chills down our spines!

Oscillating between fantasy and humour, being deliciously dark and terribly creepy, with many dangerous numbers and plenty of monstrous creatures, Plexus Polaire will have you screaming and crying up the aisles right up until the final curtain!

   

BIO

The Norwegian Yngvild Aspeli, the Russian Polina Borisova and Frenchman Pierre Tual graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette Charleville-
Mézières (ESNAM). Yngvild Aspeli as an actress and puppeteer, and makes masks and puppets for different companies in France, Norway and England. In 2012, she began an artistic collaboration with Compagnie Philippe Genty, and currently is working with the Centre de Production de La Maison de la Culture de Nevers et de la Nièvre. The actress and puppeteer Polina Borisova collaborated in numerous shows, mixing clown and object theatre. In the last edition of FIMFA she presented her magnificent solo Go! Pierre Tual, director and puppeteer, has collaborated on various projects and develops his work around the meeting on stage of words and puppets, mainly from texts by contemporary authors.

Teatro de Ferro [Portugal]

“Uma Aventura no Espaço”

SÃO LUIZ TEATRO MUNICIPAL – Palco da Sala Principal
10 May at 7pm (Saturday) | 11 de Maio at 5.30pm and 7.30pm (Sunday)

Conception and performers: Carla Veloso, Igor Gandra Songs by: Regina Guimarães Music, composition and live interpretation (piano): Fátima Fonte Scenography: Igor Gandra Puppets: Eduardo Mendes, Hernâni Miranda Construction workshop: Teatro de Ferro, Américo Castanheira - Tudo Faço, Ana Ferreira, Ricardo Graça Photographs: Susana Neves Lighting design and technical direction: Mariana Figueroa Production mananger: Carla Veloso Co-production: Teatro de Ferro e Centro Cultural Vila Flor Company sponsored by: Governo de Portugal | Secretário de Estado da Cultura - DGArtes Technique: Full-view manipulation For audiences over: +6 Running time: Approx. 75 min. Language: Portuguese

Two actors and a pianist will accompany the audience this Space Adventure and will live with them the adventures of a little girl, Carla Cosmonauta. This girl, who happens to be a puppet, goes through several places- city, nature, intimacy and cosmos - to reveal the different meanings and representations of space to the youngsters, and throughout the history, they resort to painting, dance, architecture or cinema to help them.

The show takes place in a special scenic device: the audience is on the stage and the stage, sometimes is on the audience! This device resembles a spaceship disguised as the past and future, and also looks an unidentified flying object, but only at first glance because it also resembles a carousel, a half-pipe or those ancient Greek theatres…

 
 

BIO

Teatro de Ferro was founded in 1999. Originally created as a label identifying the creative works of Igor Gandra and Carla Veloso, the project gradually envolved towards the state of a professional structure of creation.
The choice of the name - Teatro de Ferro (Iron Theatre) - presupposes a notion of primordial, resistant and at the same time changeable matter: this transformation process continues to inspire them.
The work of the Company has been developed in the theatre of, and with, puppets and objects. They conceive their practice in the logic of a research in which the puppet has assumed a matrix value in its possible hybridations, both tempted and tempting.
The relations - of the body interpreter with the manipulated object and the implication of each spectator in the building of this relation - are lines of reflection that are transversal to the artistic practice of Teatro de Ferro.
The promotion of Portuguese contemporary dramaturgy is a defining trait of their artistic project, the reason why the company has mainly worked with original texts by Portuguese writers.
TdF has been reaching heterogenic publics. Improbable partnerships, the search for alternative contexts outside of the usual circuits of the performing arts, the intense itinerating activity, the creation aimed to the youngsters, and the projects of cultural action, are TdF clearest gestures, and in this way they declare this plural wish of sharing.

[ video ]

Nicola Unger [Netherlands]

“Phantom Story”

MUSEU DA MARIONETA
13 and 14 May at 9.30pm (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Portuguese premiere

Ideia, video, drawings, performer: Nicola Unger Advisor: Duro Toomato Sound and voice: Jonathan F. Brown Co-production: Plateaux Festival Mousonturm Frankfurt, Productiehuis Rotterdam (Rotterdamse Schouwburg), Zeebelt den Haag Supports: Goethe Institut the Niederlands Technique: projections, shadows and paper cut-outs Público-alvo: +16 Running time: Aprox. 50 min. Language: English Limited audience

“One does not choose to be a revolutionary, the revolution chooses you.”
- Ilich Ramirez Sánchez - Carlos, o Chacal

A solo performance about terror and fate based on a real story and re-enacted on a miniature stage using paper cutouts, projected animations and shadows. The story of a woman who almost crossed paths with the famous terrorist Carlos in the 70s, and for years was mistakenly taken for a terrorist. She was heading with her boyfriend to a party, at which Carlos had just killed three policemen. She was arrested, interrogated for a week and extradited from France. Ironically she never even saw Carlos in person. “Revolution not only chooses the revolutionaries, but also the victims. Carlos is Bin Laden. I could have been that woman, or the guy who passed on his simcard to a terrorist could have been that woman, or the Brazilian who got shot in the tube.” Phantom Story is an immortal story…

In the perception of this woman it seem this incident of being under suspect has changed her life dramatically or at least closed off a couple of options in her life. She says she suffers a trauma from being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Life treated her like a puppet, coincidence placed her on the game board at a very bad spot, while others moved on…

The audience experiences two layers of the piece: the projection and the events on one table. Together they create a mesmerizing atmosphere/effect of an optical trick, events become rather ungraspable. Phantomesque. Visual confusion: what are we looking at? What is real?

Prizes: Winner Sonderpreis Hessische Theatertage 2009 e Audience Prize International Animation & Puppetry Warsaw 2012

  

BIO

Nicola Unger studied at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen and at the Art School DasArts in Amsterdam. Nicola Unger enjoys being an autodidact and suffers from having to do everything herself. She taught herself graphic and audio programs; she publishes her own comics and collects them. In her theatre pieces she emphasizes visual aspects and in general finds more inspiration in the visual arts. Often those works blur the border between the two art forms. She is interested in issues that have to do with technology in everyday life, (optical) illusions, the horizon of human consciousness, fate, history. Further she experiments with different media: Installations, videos and drawings. Her projects have been show at the Productiehuis Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Zeebelt Den Haag, Vooruit Gent, HAU Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, La Porta Barcelona and have been supported by the Goethe Institute.

TJP – Centre Dramatique National d’Alsace Strasbourg [France]

“Actéon Miniature”

MARIA MATOS TEATRO MUNICIPAL
16 and 17 May at 9.30pm (Friday and Saturday)
Portuguese premiere

Direction: Renaud Herbin Performer: Carine Gualdaroni Puppets: Paulo Duarte Artistic collaboration: Julika Mayer, Christophe Le Blay Espace: Mathias Baudry Sound design: Morgan Daguenet Lighting design: Fabien Bossard Technicians: Pascal Mazeau, Louis Guerry Construction: Christian Rachner Stage director: Thomas Fehr Photographs: Benoit Linder Production: TJP – Centre Dramatique National d’Alsace Strasbourg Co-production: La Filature, Scène Nationale de Mulhouse. LàOù marionnette contemporaine, L’Arc, Scène Nationale du Creusot Supports: Institut Français Technique: Mix For audiences over: +12 Running time: 45 min. Language: Without words

Inspired by a Greek myth found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Renaud Herbin’s new creation describes the story of an initiation. A young hunter about to reach adulthood confronts himself and explores his own transgressive desires. After a long day of hunting, Actéon wanders about the forest, gets lost and enters an area forbidden to men, unchaining an impossible encounter. There he happens to see what he is not permitted to see: he spies on Diana, the goddess of Nature, naked in her bath. Realistic puppets, light and sound effects all converse, echo, and replace one another, surrounding the artist on stage. They create a wealth of impressions and landscapes in which the goddess Diana can make her way to meet an actually quite vulnerable Actéon.
Actéon Miniature is a dazzling show, mixing puppet theatre, dance and a reflexion on images and matter.
This show is the new creation of Renaud Herbin, director of the TJP - Centre Dramatique National d’Alsace Strasbourg.

“There is a very precise writing work between action, sound and light. In my shows I like to leave space for the audience's imagination, so each one can tell their own story. This is what is most beautiful in the performing arts.”
- Renaud Herbin

“(…) A beautiful show with puppets inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses (...). Subtle pace, precision and undeniable aesthetic requirements (...).
The animal materialized by puppeteer Paul Duarte, will walk away until disappears completely in a beautiful lighting effect (...) aesthetically is indisputable.
Actéon demonstrates complete mastery of aesthetics, this show also announces in Renaud Herbin, the promise of a herald of myth, also creator and programmer, who did not fail to surprise us pleasantly.”
- Angélique Lagarde, Kourandart

BIO | Renaud Herbin

Renaud Herbin graduated from the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette de Charleville-Mézières (ESNAM) in 1999, and founded with Julika Mayer and Paulo Duarte the company LàOù - marionnette contemporaine. He directed and performed in the following shows Pygmalion miniature (2011), Lopin (2008), Mitoyen (2006), Vrai ! Je suis très nerveux (2003), Détails, Les grands poissons mangent les petits (2002), Petits Chaos (2000) and Un Rêve (1999). Between 2003 and 2008 he developed the projecto Centres Horizons with the filmaker Nicolas Lelièvre: shows and animated movies about urbanism in the cities of Rennes, Buenos Aires, Berlin Villa Médicis Hors-les-murs 2004). Through its own productions and numerous artistic collaborations (co-directions with Frédéric Fisbach, Robert Cantarella, Julie Bérès, Charlotte Nessi), mixing theatre, opera, contemporary dance and writing, developing a unique visual language, which places in the center the idea of manipulation, understood as something that connects artistic fields. In this sense, his creations include the presence of puppets, actors, dancers, sound and images in interaction on stage.
Since January 2012 Renaud is the Director of TJP - Dramatique Centre National d' Alsace Strasbourg.

Teatro de Marionetas do Porto [Portugal]

“Pelos Cabelos”

MUSEU DA MARIONETA
17 May at 4pm (Saturday) | 18 May 11.30am (Sunday)

Direction and scenography: Isabel Barros Texts: Edgard Fernandes, Isabel Barros, Rui Queiroz de Matos Puppets: Sandra Neves, from the illustrations by João Vaz de Carvalho Music and Animation: coletivo HUSMA (João Apolinário, Nuno Cortez e Pedro Cardoso) Lighting design: Alexandre Vieira Performers: Edgard Fernandes, Rui Queiroz de Matos Production: Sofia Carvalho Lighting and sound operation: Cláudia Valente Puppets construction: Sandra Neves (coordination), Nuno Guedes, Teresa Dantas, Rita Silva (internship) Scenography construction: Américo Castanheira, Tudo-Faço Acknowledgements: Ensemble, Escovaria de Belomonte Company sponsored by: Governo de Portugal | Secretário de Estado da Cultura - DGArtes Technique: Full-view manipulation For audiences over: +4 Running time: 40 min. Language: Portuguese

 

Teatro de Marionetas do Porto creates a show where the humour and the absurd are merged, with singular characters, inspired by João Vaz de Carvalho’s illustrations Pelos Cabelos. In Pelos Cabelos, actors and puppets inhabit a place located somewhere, a distant place almost extra land, where there are stories of hairs that are never cut and that don't stop growing, creating connections and many, many, many links.

   

BIO

Teatro de Marionetas do Porto, one of the most well-known puppet companies in Portugal, presents in Lisbon one of its remarkable creations. Since their formation, in 1998, the company produced and presented more than 30 shows. All these productions represent extremely diverse experiences in the contemporary puppet theatre, looking to find new ways of conception and new ways of regarding the interpretation and the relationship with other areas of creation. The company also dedicates itself to the study and revival of old forms of traditional theatre, like Teatro Dom Roberto, which has been presented more than a thousand times.
Their founder and artistic director, João Paulo Seara Cardoso (1956-2010), studied theatre and puppet theatre, attended courses in the Institut National d’Éducation Populaire and Institut International de la Marionnette, in France. He worked with João Coimbra, Marcel Violette, Jim Henson and Lopez Barrantes. In 1982 he initiated the study and spreading of the Teatro Dom Roberto, Portuguese traditional puppets that had more than 1500 presentations. He published children’s books and was the author of television series for the young audiences.
The group splits its activity between the programming of the Teatro do Belomonte, in Oporto, and an intense activity, touring in Portugal and abroad. Presently, the TMP is engaged in a major project, the Museu de Marionetas do Porto, opened in 2013.

Amit Drori [Israel]

“Savanna: A Possible Landscape”

TEATRO NACIONAL D. MARIA II – Sala Estúdio
17 May at 9.15pm (Saturday) | 18 May at 4.15pm (Sunday)
Portuguese premiere

Direction and concept: Amit Drori Set design: Noam Dover Projections: Michal Sara Cederbaum Video: Jérôme Vernez Music: Gai Sherf Animal animation and manipulation: Sylwia Drori, Inbal Yomtovian Advisor: Talia Beck Performers: Amit Drori, Gai Sherf, Jérôme Vernez, Laila Bettermann, Li Lorian Production: Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne Co-production: Bonlieu Scène Nationale Annecy, Culturescapes – Basel Tour manager: Elizabeth Gay Photos: Mario del Curto, Sylwia Drori, Gadi Dagon, Michal Sara Cederbaum Supports: Services Culturels de l’Ambassade d’Israël en France, Embaixada de Israel em Portugal, Mamuta Pasal Center of Arts, Jerusalém Technique: Automata and visual theatre For audiences over: +9 Running time: 55 min. Language: Some words in English

Savanna is a journey to an exotic landscape of moving sculptures, inhabited by an array of exquisite robotic animals - elephants, antelopes, giant tortoises, birds, snails and caterpillars.

Built to reflect human feeling and imagination, Amit Drori's handcrafted mechanical bestiary is made of wood and appears to come straight out of Leonardo da Vinci's imagination; it speaks to us from a lost paradise, a place of memories and beautiful sounds.
Discreet and touching, Savanna’s two interrelated stories, exquisite robotic animals and moving sculptures, reflect human feelings and imagination. The landscape of Savanna is a metaphor for our emotions.

With its lifelike movement, beautiful paper-cut projections and atmospheric sounds, this intriguing production brings the African savanna into the theatre.

“The robotic animals are handcrafted objects, technological yet constructed as very personal sculptures. The clear line that divides nature and civilization is breaking down here, in the attempt to treat the machine as a sensitive creature. Unlike the industrial world, where machines are made for functional use, the only function of these robots is to reflect human emotions and imagination.
These are poetic robots. The animals had to go through a training process, in which we created banks of behavior patterns, actions and expressions. On stage, we recall it to express human thought and emotion: curiosity, loneliness, empathy, grief and intimacy.”
- Amit Drory

“Ageless and enchanting.”
- Badische Zeitung Switzerland

“A mechanical Eden... There are "ohhhs" of wonder and delight as each new animal emerges. The observation of animals is superb, gorgeously realised in mechanical detail.”
- Zoë Anderson, The Independent ★★★★★

“The creatures were intriguing curiosities and I was fascinated to see what they could do. There were moments of brilliance when Savanna became a transformative piece of theatre: when a flock of birds were expertly manipulated on long sticks, or when the emotions of a baby elephant facing its dying mother were delicately, mechanically expressed (…). Amit Drori’s Savanna is an ambitious project exploring the edges of automata and puppetry (…).”
- Isobel Smith, Total Theatre

“Amit Drori’s robotic wooden animals are like a da Vinci drawing brought to life (…).”
- Matthew Francey, The Creators Project

    

BIO

Amit Drori graduated from the School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem (2001) since 2006 he is teaching there contemporary puppetry and image based theatre. As a guest lecturer he is collaborating with the MA in Visual Literacy programme at Hakibuzim Academy, Tel Aviv and Shenkar College of engineering and design. He is a member of the Train Theatre artistic board.

He has been a recipient of the Rozenblum Award for excellency in the performing arts (2012); Acre Festival awards for directing and design (2001, 2003); and has received grants from the America-Israel Foundation, the Jerusalem Foundation, the Israeli Lottery Council, Rich Foundation, Nathan Cumings Foundation and the Rabinovitz Foundation.
“Israeli artist Amit Drori is a theatre director, designer, and maker of beautiful, moving objects. His stage work creates a theatrical universe based on the use of mechanical and robotic wood-crafted artifacts, live performers, video projections and open source technologies. His projects evolve through a long process in which theatrical imagery and human perception work together like a beautifully complex machine.” - Barbican, London, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

Etienne Lamaison e Sylvain Peker [Portugal]

“Mi Ré Miró”

CENTRO CULTURAL DE BELÉM - Sala de Ensaio
22 and 23 May at 11am (Thursday and Friday)
24 May at 3.30pm (Saturday)
25 May at 11.30am (Sunday)

Conception and creation: Etienne Lamaison, Sylvain Peker Music direction: Etienne Lamaison Artistic direction and direction: Sylvain Peker Clarinets: Etienne Lamaison, Eunice Gil, Marisa Cavaco, Tiago Alves Voice, bagpipe, tambourine: Joana Negrão Puppets and objects manipulation: Sylvain Peker Puppets and objects construction: Marta Fernandes, Sylvain Peker costumes: Zé Nova Lighting technician: Ricardo Trindade Sound technician: Ricardo Costa Production: Sandrine Pereira Diogo Co-production: CCB [Fábrica das Artes - Projecto Educativo] Technique: Mix For audiences over: +2 Running time: 50 min. Language: Portuguese

Mi Ré Miró gives voice and life to the work of Joan Miró, mixing sounds and images with the artist’s shapes and representations. Four clarinets and a voice are walking through his paintings, which are disjointed. The colours appear, sounds are blending with shapes, animals, rhythms and points. We witness the birth of a simple and rich language.

BIO

Etienne Lamaison graduated from the National Conservatoire in Lyon, where he was the student of Jacques Di Donato, and obtained a diploma in bass clarinet at the Paris Conservatoire. Subsequent to his ten year career as first solo clarinet of the Lisbon Orquestra Metropolitana, he has increasingly concentrated his efforts on improvisation (contemporary, jazz, & world-music), composition and theatrical shows, and on performances with visual artists, as well as on his solo activities with Radio France, National Orchestra of Ile-de-France, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, and ensemble 2E2M. Lamaison regularly appears with chamber music ensemble. He is currently a professor at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon and l’Universidade de Évora (Portugal). Lamaison is frequently involved in children and adult educational projects such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and has been giving master classes throughout Portugal, Spain, France and Brazil.

Sylvain Peker is director, actor and puppeteer. Graduated in Philosophy, he is a member of the companies Lua Cheia - teatro para todos and PIA. He has collaborated with various groups such as Bando or Royal de Luxe

Teatro de Ferro [Portugal]

“OLO”

MUSEU DA MARIONETA
22 May at 9.30pm (Thursday)
World premiere

Direction and performer: Igor Gandra Music: Carlos Guedes Set design and puppets: Igor Gandra Movement: Carla Veloso Construction: Eduardo Mendes, Hernâni Miranda, Américo Castanheira -Tudo Faço Photos: Susana Neves Technical direction: Mariana Figueroa Production: Teatro de Ferro Company sponsored by: Governo de Portugal - Secretário de Estado da Cultura - DGArtes Technique: Mix For audiences over: +16 Running time: Approx. 60 min. Language: Portuguese

In this solo performance the condition of the performer creator is called into question: what happens when we lock ourselves in a room aiming to create something new? A new performance where we discover resonances from universes as diverse as Jorge Luís Borges, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ágota Krystóf or Heiner Muller.

The Teatro de Ferro premieres OLO in FIMFA Lx14, after the showcase of a work in progress version in the last edition.

BIO

Teatro de Ferro was born in 1999. Originally created as a label identifying the creative works of Igor Gandra and Carla Veloso, the project gradually involved towards the state of a professional structure of creation.
The choice of this name - Teatro de Ferro (Iron Theatre) - presupposes a notion of primordial, resistant and at the same time changeable matter: this transformation process continues to inspire them.
The work of the Company has been developed in the theatre of, and with, puppets and objects. They conceive their practice in the logic of a research in which the puppet has assumed a matrix value in its possible hybridations, both tempted and tempting.
The relations - of the body interpreter with the manipulated object and the implication of each spectator in the building of this relation - are lines of reflection that are transversal to the artistic practice of Teatro de Ferro.
The promotion of Portuguese contemporary dramaturgy is a defining trait of their artistic project, the reason why the company has mainly worked with original texts by Portuguese writers.
TdF has been reaching heterogenic publics. Improbable partnerships, the search for alternative contexts outside of the usual circuits of the performing arts, the intense itinerating activity, the creation aimed to the youngsters, and the projects of cultural action, are TdF clearest gestures, and in this way they declare this plural wish of sharing.

Miguel Fragata e Inês Barahona [Portugal]

“A Caminhada dos Elefantes”

TEATRO MERIDIONAL
24 May at 5pm (Saturday) | 25 May at 4pm (Sunday)

Concept, dramaturgy and direction: Miguel Fragata, Inês Barahona Performer: Miguel Fragata Scenography and costumes: Maria João Castelo Music: Fernando Mota Lighting: José Álvaro Correia Production: Meninos Exemplares Technician and light operation: Pedro Machado Dramaturgical advisor - Child Psychology: Madalena Paiva Gomes Pedagogical advisor - Pedagogy: Elvira Leite Artistic consultant: Giacomo Scalisi, Catarina Requeijo, Isabel Minhós Martins Photos: Susana Paiva Video: Maria Remédio Supported by: Governo de Portugal - Secretário de Estado da Cultura - DGArtes Co-production: Artemrede, Centro Cultural de Vila Flor, Maria Matos Teatro Municipal, Teatro Viriato Technique: Objects For audiences over: +7 Running time: 50 min. Language: Portuguese

 The Elephants’ Walk reflects upon existence, life and death, its based on an unique story  – that of a man who dedicated his life to saving elephants. When he dies, the animals inexplicably come to his house to pay him one last tribute: he was not just any man, he was one of them.

"We wanted to create a show about death for children and families. Not because we have a morbid obsession with this theme, but because we felt it was a subject on which no one wanted to talk, much less children (...). After all, as children told us many times, death is part of life, even if we don't talk about it."
- Miguel Fragata and Inês Barahona

 

BIO

Miguel Fragata was born in Oporto in 1983. He graduated in Drama at Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, in 2007. He created and performed in several shows of the project "Teatro das Compras", directed by Giacomo Scalisi. He was director assistant of Bruno Bravo, Diogo Dória, Claudio Hochmann and Madalena Victorino. Works regularly as an actor in the company Mala Voadora. He also developed regular work as a performer and co-creator in theatre and dance shows by Madalena Victorino. He co-created and performed in several shows for children such as "Sous la Table" by Agnès Desfosses by Compagnie Acta (Paris), among others. Miguel regularly develops projects on arts and education.

Inês Barahona was born in Lisbon in 1977. She graduated in Philosophy and Masters in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa. Under the direction of Madalena Victorino, she joined the Centro de Pedagogia e Animação - Centro Cultural de Belém, where, from 2005 to 2008, developed projects on arts and education. She joined the Giacomo Scalisi’s team in production and relationship with the community, for the opening of the Teatro Municipal de Portimão (TEMPO), 2008 . She has been working in several creative fields, including writing and playwriting with Madalena Victorino, Giacomo Scalisi, Teatro Regional da Serra de Montemuro, among others. She has also been directing workshops on creative writing.

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