FIMFA Lx24 - Highlights

The official opening of FIMFA Lx24 takes place this year at the Castelo de São Jorge with a great and succulent menu, with street shows for families and general audience, from 4 to 104 years old!

Arachnobot, a giant spider puppet and a world first will be waiting for you all. Created by Tim Davies, this unique puppet combines a giant inflatable skin with a complex cable skeleton which controls eight independently articulated legs. The mechanism enables precise, lifelike movements controlled by a single puppeteer. Get ready for laughs and shivers!

In the great tradition of fairs, the Belgian company PikzPalace brings Boucherie Bacul, an old-fashioned butchery market booth within and around which nothing is what it seems. Instead of meat, the Bacul family only works with abandoned stuffed animals. You've never seen such cute toys cooked in such a hilarious way!

Kamidopof will be also waiting for you! A strange puppet, a HUGE, surprising and mysterious head that fascinates us and that we can't stop looking at, created the French company La Femme Invisible.

And of course, a castle has to have horses and exquisite riders, and The Horsemen, by the French Les Goulus, comes with three very pompous and famous equestrian riders chosen to represent France at the forthcoming Olympic Games, with humour worthy of Monty Python, and which has been an absolute hit all over the world.

And we'd like to start by highlighting two great moments of FIMFA Lx24: the Belgian company Karyatides presents Les Misérables in miniature, in an object theatre adaptation inspired by Victor Hugo's novel, a critically acclaimed gem, with hundreds of clay and wooden figures, portraying a humanity in search of justice and freedom. This show is part of the cycle Abril Abriu do Teatro Nacional D. Maria II and is presented at Teatro do Bairro.

Johanny Bert, considered one of the most daring and inventive puppeteers of his generation and one of the most outstanding directors on the French scene, presents La (Nouvelle) Ronde at Teatro São Luiz, an aesthetically and politically provocative show, with a prodigious manipulation, hilarious, poetic and daring, which is an ode to freedom and love. Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's play La Ronde - Merry-go-Round, it takes a sensitive and humorous look at the plurality of our sexual and amorous practices. An incredible and dazzling show, which has been a huge success and is being performed for the first time outside France.

At São Luiz Teatro Municipal the French creator Étienne Saglio, a major figure in new magic and in objects manipulation, presents Goupil & Kosmao. The great magician Kosmao and his charismatic assistant Goupil, a stuffed fox, invite you to a cabaret of the highest calibre, with absolutely dazzling magic acts! And get ready, because you will be in a fascinating show, in which a puppet fox comes to life in an absolutely prodigious way, and we can't reveal any more, except that it's a charming, humour-filled gem.

The Palestinian Jordanian artist Husam Abed, based in the Czech Republic, presents War Maker, which is based on the true story of Karim Shaheen, a Palestinian visual artist from Gaza, and how his life and dreams were affected by living through different wars in the space of eleven years. A multidisciplinary performance that blends visual art, new media, documentary and object theatre. How does war affect our dreams? War Maker is the latest creation by Husam Abed. In 2016 he was one of the highlights of FIMFA, with his autobiographical and intimate show The Smooth Life.

Fernando Mota presents Sursum Corda, a multidisciplinary show that deepens the research that he has been developing into the expressive and symbolic possibilities of natural elements, together with his special sound objects.

The renowned Brazilian company Pigmaleão Escultura que Mexe presents Antropophagic Fables for Fascist Days. A scenic project that uses string puppets and hyper-realistic silicone masks, crossing visual arts, theatre and contemporary philosophy to reflect on this historical moment in which we all live, based on a mixture of Aesop's Fables and the works of Márcia Tiburi, philosopher, artist, teacher, writer and researcher of fascism.

At Teatro do Bairro the French company Sacékripa presents Vue, the female version of the hilarious Vu, presented at FIMFA Lx19. A solo for a sublime and 'explosive' manipulator of everyday objects. On the crossroads between object theatre and miniature circus and involuntary clowning, Vue is a small masterpiece, full of suspense and absolutely hilarious, not to be missed!

Teatro de Ferro presents Dura Dita Dura, with text by Regina Guimarães, a puppet show suitable to all age groups about the deafening fear that ruled for half a century in a country where walls had ears. This show made its absolute premiere at FIMFA Lx9 and it makes perfect sense to present it again in the year that we are celebratibg the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.

The company MECANIkA of Paulo Duarte, a Portuguese puppeteer based in France, returns to FIMFA, this time with Polaroid, where we navigate between puppets, shadows, music, video and light effects. Paulo Duarte draws on his father's life and buits the present from pieces of the past, on the theme of exile and emigration.

At LU.CA – Teatro Luís de Camões will be presented a special programme designed for children, but with shows that the grown-ups will also enjoy!
The French company Le Poisson Soluble presents Apneia. A nocturnal adventure with puppets on an extraordinary bed, taking us on a fantastical journey, teetering on the edge between dream and reality. Between magic and absurd humour, but with a tender look at a couple driven by their imagination and who will wake up… different! What if dreams had the power to change our lives?

The Insect Circus by the English company String Theatre will amaze audiences with the wonderful world of insects, where beetles and grasshoppers, wasps and dragonflies demonstrate their dexterity with great skill and humour. A unique circus in a show that breathes new life into the traditional techniques used in Victorian trick marionettes.

The Dutch company Lichtbende and their marvellous magic lanterns are back to FIMFA, this time with Ring-Ring, An exciting story full of visual effects, magic lanterns, shadows, and live music.

At Teatro Taborda we reflect on the environment and the impact of our actions on the other side of the planet with the company Formiga Atómica and the show O Estado do Mundo (Quando Acordas). In a misdirected world, it is necessary to look into the past and make it so that everything comes out right in the future. The clock is always ticking.

At Teatro Romano the French creator Julien Aillet presents Mogrr, A poetic and darkly humorous puppet show for monsters big and small! A performance very much inspired by Todd Browning's film Freaks, but also influenced by the melancholic innocence of Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot. Mogrr was presented at FIMFA Lx8 and now the Festival has invited Julien to create a new version, which makes its debut in Lisbon.

Trupe Fandanga presents Onirotóptero, a micro-event of miniature puppets, for one or two people at a time.

At Museu de Lisboa - Palácio Pimenta the company La Mue/tte and Santiago Moreno, the One-Man-Band or Man-Orchestra, present Le Faux-Orchestre. A puppet concert for a musician and his double, in a fusion of puppet, mask and music with a South American air, the False-Orchestra is to be listened to with your eyes wide open! Guitarist on one side, percussionist on the other, in an absolutely fascinating musical and physical performance.

Teatro Saco de Huesos presents Gildo, um artista entre sonhos, an exciting and poetic puppet show for the whole family, suffused in a dreamlike ambience, with very very friendly skeletons, who are always ready to have fun.

The Teatro Invisível sets up its tent in the gardens of the Palácio Pimenta and shows us Estranhões e Bizarrocos, which tells the story of Jácome, who one day felt that a revolution was needed to change the planet...

At Escola do Largo and as part of the European project IMPULSE! New Focus on Puppetry and Visual Theatre, the Lithuanian group Kosmos Theatre presents The Dilettante (*who dreamt of an Angel), in absolute premiere. A one-act audiovisual mono-performance immersing in the surreal world of Jean Cocteau's artistic work. The work freely improvises on motives from Jean Cocteau's graphic and paintings,  poems, novels, films and his biography.

The Festival is also a time for artists and the audience to exchange experiences, in addition to a range of other activities, such as film screenings, workshops and meetings with artists, among others.

Welcome to FIMFA!