Mar ~ Marionetas | Espinho International Puppet Festival

video 2024

#marmarionetas2024

video > Nuno Pinto

26 + 27 OCTOBER

We've come to the end of months of work, intense weeks of planning, many teams involved, committed and dedicated. Families, school groups, senior groups, so many people visited the Mar~Marionetas Festival to take part in workshops, see exhibitions, watch shows and performances.
We would like to thank many people, including the staff of the Municipality of Espinho, the various cultural facilities in the city, the Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora, the stores and shopkeepers, restaurants, accommodation establishments and, above all, the public who filled the halls with joy with their fantastic presence.
Around 10,000 people came to enjoy the Mar~Marionetas Festival, which presented more than 80 proposals, with companies from all over the mainland and islands and from 4 countries.

25 OCTOBER

The days of Mar~Marionetas were spent in visits, workshops, and shows. Visits full of generations, committed participants in our workshops and spectators who left us very satisfied. “O URSO que NÃO ERA” is a poetic challenge about man's identity, in the game of we are who we are, or we are who we seem to be. These are thoughts that we bring to our audiences. Families, participants, and spectators made this a day of intense artistic activity.

20 OCTOBER

A remarkable moment, full of symbolism and emotion, brought the show “The girl who painted birds” to the Espinho Auditorium, in front of a sold-out audience. Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora presented their creation in conjunction with the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of April, challenging us to think about freedom and peace through the symbolism of a simple children's game.
We were accompanied on stage by a Portuguese sign language interpreter, in a pressing need to create conditions so that accessibility for all individuals is something tangible.
It was a generational meeting place, an emotional moment where we thought about freedom, or the lack of it, and the status of children who can't always live this moment at a fundamental stage in their lives.
In a stage dynamic that reaches an audience of different generations, the warm reception of those who attended the Festival was felt.

18 OCTOBER

We welcomed the S.A.Marionetas company to Espinho from Alcobaça, presenting an artistic project that is currently on national and international tour.
Another sold-out room, the audience, the conviviality between artists, between teams, those days when the personal satisfaction of the surrounding group fills us with personal satisfaction.
This marks the start of the second weekend of the Mar~Marionetas Festival, with this distinctive proposal that shows us a vision of physical disability and the concept of freedom.
The company has been working for 27 years in different dramaturgical and plastic directions, exploring pressing issues in today's society.

12 + 13 OCTOBER

The first weekend took place around the city's cultural facilities, gardens, and streets. Shows, performances, children's workshops and games made for a full weekend of puppetry. The sun was shining and naturally all the planned activities were well attended.
National and international companies departing and arriving, artists communicating with the various audiences, intervention in the urban space with our “mostrengos”, giant fish taken from old maritime maps.
With a strong response from the various audiences, we had sold-out rooms, lots of people moving around the exhibition and also lots of applause.
Thus began the Festival, which continues until October 27 with countless unmissable activities!
Mar~Marionetas, the festival you won't forget!

11 OCTOBER

We are very grateful for yesterday, for the tireless work of the Municipality's teams made up of people and names, Rita, Vanessa, Sandra, Salette, Nuno, Diana, Henrique, the technical teams, the culture teams, the education teams, … those whose names are hidden behind things well done.
Grateful for the valuable legacy left by Dr. Idalina, Silvia, Rosa, Armanda, our dear neighbors. Grateful to Dr. Armando, Dr. Mário Cachada and the presence of the Mayor of Espinho, Dr. Maria Manuel Cruz.
We, Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora, are a cog in the wheel, Filipa, Rúben and Clara. Hélder Duarte, Beatriz Filomeno, Lola Tajtelbaum, Nuno Pinto, Ana Filipa Rodrigues, César Cardoso and Sílvio Sousa.
To the facilities hosting this edition of the Festival, the Auditorium of Espinho - Academia, the José Marmelo e Silva Municipal Library, the Espinho Multimedia Center, the Espinho Municipal Museum and the Art and Culture Forum.
Events are made up of people and there is someone special who marked our memory yesterday and to whom we are deeply grateful for their presence, our audience, thank you!
We still have 17 more days of celebrating the Art of Puppetry ahead of us. Yesterday was the beginning of something that is good for all of us, cultural enjoyment.