Livsmedlet Theatre (Finland)

SÃO LUIZ TEATRO MUNICIPAL - Sala Mário Viegas

21, 22 and 23 May at 7pm (Tue, Wed, Thu)

^{Portuguese Premiere}

_{TICKETS ONLINE}

_{Technique: Miniature figurines and objects Language: Without words For audiences over: +12 Running time: 50 min.}

Across the desert, behind our back. Up the mountain, down our spine. Over the sea, just under our nose. On the day the war broke out, we left home.

In Invisible Lands, the visual theatre duo Livsmedlet challenges themselves in a unique meeting between puppetry and choreography.

Geography and politics are physically extended and transformed into organic performance platforms – our bodies – and we learn what touch, presence, and endurance really are about.

They use their bodies as landscapes for miniature figurines, whose chaotic journey of exile is filmed live with mini-cameras. The duo plays with scales, between the micro and the macro. Tracking down a family in the mountains of knees by a helicopter the size of a matchbox, wandering a makeshift boat on a sea of bellies... What takes the finery of a child's game tells, without words, the ordinary dramas of thousands of displaced people who are all trying to save their skin.

Livsmedlet theatre has been doing already for some time earlier artistic research work with different techniques of combining manipulation of miniature figures and the use of bodies as scenography: Gradually, we have developed a genuine technique of manipulation and performance. We were inspired of Italo Calvino’s novel “Invisible cities”, and found out that using our bodies we can create various imaginary locations, just as the imaginary cities described in Italo’s book.

Invisible Lands has premiered in 2015 and has been since then performing in Finland, Estonia, Poland and France. On 2018 the show will continue to perform in France as well as in sweden, Slovenia, Germany, Norway and Russia. The show won the Festival’s Director’s prize in the Banialuka festival in Poland 2018.

"Invisible Lands is possibly the most peculiar theatre I have ever seen. At the same time it is one of the most interesting theatre experiences." - Jaakko Virrankoski, Extempore Kulttuuriblogit

"Mind blowing performance, I am speechless. The bond between human body and imagination is seamless!" -Katri Leikola, Paljon melua teatterista

"Best of all is Invisible Lands (★★★★★) by Finland’s Livsmedlet Theatre. It’s the story of refugees, represented by tiny figures (…), delicate and vulnerable as they flee their war-ravaged home. What makes the show extraordinary is the path they travel. Every mountain pass, snowy outcrop, desert expanse and night-time highway is created by the bodies of Ishmael Falke and Sandrina Lindgren (…). It’s masterfully done (…)." - Mark Fisher, The Guardian

^BIO

Livsmedlet theatre duo combines skills in object theatre and dance. They explore a theatrical world that plays with our perception of reality and everyday life. 
Ishmael Falke is a puppeteer, play writer and a theatre director born in Israel. Graduated in 2005 from the puppetry school of the Arts Academy of Turku, Finland, Ishmael has staged works in various locations from Finland to Brazil, collaborating with artists from different disciplines, Ishmael has also published theatre plays and instructing literature and works as a teacher for contemporary puppetry. 
Sandrina Lindgren is a dance artist, physical performer and theatre maker born in Sweden. She graduated from the dancers department at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool Voor de Kunsten, Holland, in 2010. She has also studied choreography at SNDO and visual theatre as intern at Clipa Visual Theatre in Tel Aviv. Sandrina is working as dancer, performer and theatre maker collaborating with artists within dance, film, visual arts and puppetry, constantly moving between the borders of visual, physical theatre and dance.