A Tarumba (Portugal)

These texts, written during the First World War, reveal a lesser-known Craig, who imagined a cycle of 365 plays for puppets. Although he never finished this immense project, only around fifty texts were finalised or drafted, he never stopped correcting or completing them for almost forty years. The tiny size of each piece is often combined with various levels of narrative, nonsense and absurd humour.

Craig presents sketches that future directors and puppeteers should finish.

Miniature Short Dramas is built on the basis of some of these micro-plays, in a tropical and surrealist environment, in which other authors will intervene, such as Tristan Tzara, René Magritte, Jacques Prévert or Mário-Henrique Leiria, in a narrative made up of meaningless stories, in an effort to try to discover the meaning of the world, like a cadavre exquis, a common feature of Tarumba's work.

"There are only three ways to live in this world: either drunk, or in love, or as a poet." - Mário Cesariny

BIO

A Tarumba - Teatro de Marionetas is a Portuguese professional theatre company, based in Lisbon, established in 1993, with artistic direction of Luís Vieira and Rute Ribeiro. Its purpose is to spread and promote puppetry and visual theatre. Tarumba means to be confused or perplexed, astounded, fascinated, stunned, astonished… words that express the company’s general feeling towards the puppetry arts.

The development of a work of great artistic and technical standard, as well as the constant innovation within the field of puppetry in Portugal, are the key aspects which have been characterizing the company’s activity.

The artistic project comprises: creation and artistic experimentation; the International Festival of Puppetry and Animated Forms - FIMFA Lx organization and programme; training and research with the creation of a Puppetry Arts Centre | Centro de Artes da Marioneta - CAMa.

Since 2001, A Tarumba organizes annually the International Festival of Puppetry and Animated Forms - Festival Internacional de Marionetas e Formas Animadas - FIMFA Lx. The company received the Critics Award 2010 given to FIMFA given by the Portuguese Association of Theatre Critics. In 2013, the artistic directors, Luís Vieira and Rute Ribeiro, were awarded with the Personality of the Year Award, within the National Multimedia Awards given by Associação Multimédia, by their work on the festival.

The company has been performing all over Portugal and abroad in many international festivals (France - Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes de Charleville-Mézières 2013 and 1019 - Programme IN, Norway, USA, Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Hungary or United Kingdom), especially for an adult audience, with shows by Christopher Marlowe, Federico Garcia Lorca or Bertolt Brecht, among others. Besides the shows A Tarumba develops experimental workshops on puppetry arts, specifically for professionals, teachers or children, like, for instance, toy theatre or shadow workshops. Luís Vieira and Rute Ribeiro were Guest Artists of the Eugene O’Neill National Puppetry Conference 2024 – Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, USA.

The CAMa - Centro de Artes da Marioneta is home to the company and a centre for project development, where the Funicular Project, a programme of training composed by international workshops is also integrated and a documentation centre.

^CREDITS

_{Artistic direction, concept, scenography, puppets and performers: Luís Vieira, Rute Ribeiro Adaptation and texts: Rute Ribeiro Sound design: Miguel Lucas Mendes Stage assistance and executive production: Rita Caetano Soares Executive production: Mariana Monteiro Photografy: Luís Vieira, Pedro Sardinha, Margarida Barbedo Support and partnerships: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, EGEAC Company sponsored by: República Portuguesa - Cultura / DGArtes} 

_{www.tarumba.pt}