Inspired by the illustrations of João Vaz de Carvalho named Pelos Cabelos (Hair Hairs), Teatro de Marionetas do Porto has created a performance inhabited by unusual characters with an absent-minded and hallucinated gaze. Humor and the absurd merge in this performance, providing us with yet another experience where marionettes abound. In Pelos Cabelos (Hair Hairs), performers and marionettes are inhabitants of a place located somewhere; an “Out There”, a distant, almost extraterrestrial place.
staging and scenography
Isabel Barros
texts
Edgard Fernandes, Isabel Barros and Rui Queiroz de Matos
marionettes
Sandra Neves, from the illustrations of João Vaz de Carvalho
music and animation
coletivo HUSMA (João Apolinário, Nuno Cortez and Pedro Cardoso)
lighting design
Alexandre Vieira
cast
Rui Queiroz de Matos and Vitor Gomes
production
Sofia Carvalho
lighting and sound operation
Filipe Azevedo
marionette construction
Sandra Neves (coordination), Nuno Guedes, Teresa Dantas and Rita Silva (trainee)
scenography construction
Américo Castanheira, Tudo-Faço
thanks
Ensemble, Escovaria de Belomonte
stage photography
Susana Neves
A PLACE OF WIRES AND FINGERS
João Vaz de Carvalho illustrated and TMP leads to the scene. In Pelos Cabelos (Hair Hairs), there are unusual characters with an absent-minded and hallucinated gaze. Actors and wires give movement and soul to the marionettes in a performance where humor and the absurd combine for a magical experience with puppets. The show is designed for kids, but the adults will want to watch it. It’s the only way to get to know a place located somewhere, a distant “Out There”, a world apart, with stories of growing hairs, without ever being cut, that create ties and numberless connections.
Susana Silva Oliveira (Visão – Sete Norte – 21.11.2013)
“PELOS CABELOS” IN LIVING DOLLS PREMIERES TODAY… OUT THERE
The performance by Teatro de Marionetas do Porto originates in the illustrations of João Vaz de Carvalho. Out There is where everything usually happens, except combing. Out There, there are dogs and rockets, and we don’t know if there will be trains. And who are the inhabitants? Who lives Out There? So many questions, only one solution: go to the small auditorium of Belomonte Street and see the play “Pelos Cabelos”. It’s the new production of Teatro de Marionetas do Porto and its premiere is today at 11 am.
We know that the Brush Couple live there, the Pillar Woman, Ms. Rain, I Love You the dog, Mr. Lint or Mr. Moustache. These characters were born in the series of illustrations called “Pelos Cabelos” (Hair Hairs) by João Vaz de Carvalho, but now they have names and were adapted for theatre with texts by Isabel Barros and also by the two actors, Edgard Fernandes and Rui Queiroz de Matos.
It is the second time that Teatro de Marionetas do Porto works with the art of this illustrator, but with a different approach. In “Cinderela,” the 2009 performance, the illustrations were born after the story, while the illustrations of “Pelos Cabelos” came before the text. Some of them were exhibited in the company museum, open since February. But let’s go back Out There. Over 45 minutes, the audience will come across a story without a thread, in a space that is nothing. Or it could be anything: a beach, a desert, a field, a village and who knows what else. Isabel Barros, responsible for staging and scenography, justifies this: “The images of João Vaz de Carvalho always suggested that they would land on nothingness.”
Therefore, space is not defined, “it’s a place without limits and borders”, she says. It can also be “the place of dreams”, says the company’s director, stressing that the characters live in a sort of loneliness, yet “a positive and full loneliness”. The few words that we hear throughout the performance are left floating in the air, such as the hairy clouds that keep appearing among the unusual and pleasantly crude characters.
Isabel Peixoto in Jornal de Notícias – 23.11.2013

