The ‘FIMFA Lx25,’ produced by A Tarumba – Puppet Theatre, returns to Lisbon this year, featuring a diverse array of performances across ten venues. Directed by Luís Vieira and Rute Ribeiro, the festival will showcase microscopic puppets, giant chickens, robotic vacuum cleaners, flying knives, insect and vegetable ballets, punk sausages, and reinterpretations of classics by Ibsen, Grimm, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky.
The organizers emphasize that the event “challenges artistic boundaries and explores themes such as tradition and contemporary issues, technology and the human body, humor, and social critique.” Over the course of the festival, 24 different shows, most premiering for Portuguese audiences, will be staged in nearly 100 performances by esteemed companies and emerging talents from countries including Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Spain, the United States, Finland, France, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Venues hosting these performances include São Luiz, LU.CA – Teatro Luís de Camões, Bairro, Variedades, Romano, and Taborda theaters, Museo de Lisboa – Palácio Pimenta, Casa do Comum, and the Marvila Library.
The festival opens on May 8 at São Luiz Theatre with Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House,’ reimagined by director Yngvild Aspeli and the Franco-Norwegian company Plexus Polaire. This rendition is described as an “immersive and disturbing universe” that merges life-sized puppets with visual theater.
São Luiz will also host several French companies: Théâtre Gudule with ‘La Frittata,’ a performance examining the age-old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”; Bakélite with ‘L’Amour du Risque,’ featuring robotic vacuum cleaners; La Pendue’s ‘La Manékine,’ inspired by a Grimm Brothers tale; and the cine-concert ‘Antichambre’ by Stereoptik.
Additional performances include ‘Epidermis Circus’ by the Canadian group SNAFU, which takes a “surreal and provocative” look at the human body, ‘Short Dramas in Miniature’ by A Tarumba, inspired by the absurd humor of Edward Gordon Craig, and ‘Warehouse 88,’ a tribute by the Porto Puppet Theatre to its founder João Paulo Seara Cardoso (1956-2010), offering “a dive into his archive.”
Teatro Variedades will present the Italian company Dewey Dell’s “intense reinterpretation” of Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring,’ inspired by insects. Teatro Taborda will feature ‘Saint Pulcinella’ by Gudule.
The world premiere of ‘Agencia El Solar. Object Detectives’ by Shaday Larios and Jomi Oligor (Mexico-Spain) is scheduled for Teatro do Bairro, which will also host ‘Cannibal Capital’ by Porto’s Sonoscopia & Teatro de Ferro, a piece blending punk, sausages, and social critique, ‘Nano Steps – Into the Lab’ with microscopic puppets from Finland’s Trial & Theatre, and ‘Us’ by the Belgian collective Midnight.
For younger audiences, LU.CA offers ‘Dot, Dot, Dot’ by Finland’s Portmanteau, ‘Anatopias’ by France’s Justine Macadoux & J-A Dupont, and ‘In Limbo’ by Switzerland’s Théâtre l’Articule.
Limite Zero’s adaptation of Fernando Pessoa’s ‘Next Station’ will be at the Marvila Library, while the Czech company KHWOSHCH brings Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’ to life as a ‘Vegetable Ballet’ at the Roman Theatre. Additionally, ‘Dom Roberto’ by Ricardo Ávila will be at the Museum of Lisbon, alongside ‘Box’ by the UK’s Circo Rum Ba Ba, and ‘The Bellhop’ by Spain’s Hilarilar Marionetas.
The closing performance, ‘Bruno,’ by Belgian creator Griet Herssens, will be hosted at Casa do Comum.
FIMFA will also feature parallel activities, including workshops and conferences on ‘Puppet Arts’ and ‘Gender Issues.’
A film series, details of which are yet to be announced, will run concurrently at the Portuguese Cinematheque.
