Museu da Marioneta - Museum visit guide

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MUSEU DA MARIONETA um mundo de histรณrias!

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PUPPET WHAT IS IT?

Puppets are closely attached to theatrical performances and, generally

speaking, refer to objects that can “come to life� or express themselves through movement. In order to be able to move, they are manipulated by one or several persons. Between the imaginary world and the material world, these puppets are designed to give life to the characters that they are supposed to represent.

Puppets can have different formats, more simple or more complex depending on the movements they are designed to make. There are three different generic ways of manipulating them. These are related to the position of manipulation in relation to the puppet: -

From above (rod and string puppets);

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From the same level (some shadow puppets, the Japanese bunraku and puppets the manipulation of which is visible);

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From below (glove puppets, shadow puppets, rod puppets and marotte puppets).

The diversity of puppets is related to their spatial-temporal origin but also to their repertoire and the audiences they are performing for. They can be made from any type of material, the most common being: paper, wood, fabric, clay, metal, plastic and foam.

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THE COLLECTION A VISIT TO THE PERMANENT EXHIBITION

The aim of the permanent exhibition of the Puppet Museum is to display

puppets from all over the world, travelling from one continent to another to present its most relevant examples. It begins in Asia and after a quick leap to Europe, goes to Africa and Brazil to return to and end in Portugal. It is also a voyage in time, displaying examples lost in time and even puppets created in modern day times.

In Southeast Asia two literary works are used for the basis of the repertoire of the puppet theatre. The Indian epic Ramayana, commonly attributed to the poet Valmiki and that dates from the period between the 5th and 1st centuries B.C. tells the love story between prince Rama and his beloved Sita and is at the same time, it is believed, a recounting of the conquest of Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) by the peoples of the Caucasus. The Mahabarata, also attributed to Valmiki, is a narrative of war that contains the central ideas of Hinduism, having a pronounced moral and spiritual bent.

Khon is the name given to the traditional theatre of THAILAND: a dance theatre in which the actors-dancers use masks to show which characters they are giving life to. It was initially a court theatre but today its practice has spread making it a popular entertainment also.

Khon masks are made of papier mâchÊ, being subsequently painted and

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adorned with great detail. The use of primary colours and saturated with the abundant use of gold leaf and the almost obsessive addition of adornments and details give the masks an almost godly appearance.

The khon theatre has developed its particular style of dance, costumes, music, recital and song. At the beginning, all the characters wore masks but now the Gods and the humans only appear with adornments on their heads.

A Khon theatre performance is created with teamwork that relies on several professionals: artists, sculptors, painters, singers, narrators, musicians and dancers. In addition to the masks of some of the main characters you can also see the costume used by the dancer who incarnates Thosakan, the principal demon in the story.

The same characters are used in the puppet theatre, an example of which you can see here.

On the island of Java in INDONESIA, the puppet tradition is not only very old as it is very rich given the existing diversity of animated forms. Here, the term Wayang serves to cover all types of performances and is connected to what is divine or ancestral (yang) but also to the shadow (bayang). These performances are based on the adventures of prince Panji and on the epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata, but also on other animist mythologies of different origins that also contribute towards Javanese theatre.

Wayang Topeng is the name given to the dance theatre of the island of JAVA in INDONESIA where the use of masks is one of its main characteristics.

Originally, wayang topeng was performed at court by the members of the aristocracy or by professionals but with time it became a popular form of entertainment sometimes taking place at weddings and on other festive occasions. The mask of prince Panji has normally a white face, elongated eyes, a small, slightly raised nose and a small slightly open mouth.

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Also in INDONESIA, but now on the island of BALI, masks are used in several Wayang Wong dramas, traditionally using the Ramayana as its repertoire. The masks used in these performances are considered sacred and are treated as objects of reverence and for this reason are kept in temples most of the year. When a new mask has to be constructed a specific tree is chosen which has certain protuberances, indicating that the tree is “pregnant”, the tree itself being subsequently asked permission to be cut down. A number of rituals and offerings are made in the course of the process whereby the masks are produced.

Among other examples, here we can find the mask of a bird – used for the characters, Garuda and Jatayu – and another of the monkey Hanuman and Rangda, the Queen of the Demons.

The rod puppets of JAVA are known as Wayang Golek. The heads are

made of wood, worked and painted in great detail and placed on a vertical support that, by passing through the body, allows them to turn. The costumes are made from traditional Javanese fabric, batiks. These puppets have manipulable though fine wooden rods connected to their hands.

The colour of the faces is a vital identifying element of the puppets: reds

and browns for demons and people not belonging to the nobility; greens and whites for princes and the nobility. The divinities are entitled to adornments in gold.

Shadow Puppets are present in several Asian countries and have

extended their influence to some areas of Europe.

In CHINA, the story goes that the shadow puppets appeared somewhere in the 2

nd

century B.C.. Unable to bear the death of his beloved, emperor Wu

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announced a reward for the person who would bring her back. A magic wise man cut out a silhouette of the empress in animal hide and showed it behind a white cloth to the emperor who was extremely pleased. This was how Chinese shadow theatre was born and became popular.

The most curious aspect of these puppets consists of the fact that their

heads are removable from their bodies, allowing the bodies to serve as the basis for several characters.

In TURKEY, the shadow puppets made of camel or buffalo hide tell the adventures of Karagoz (that means black-eye) and his friend Hacivad. Karagoz is a hero of popular entertainment, known for being rough and illiterate, albeit charming!

Rods placed horizontally and, which fit into the holes in the puppet, manipulate them.

In turn, Wayang Kulit, Javanese shadow puppets are made of buffalo hide from which are cut out the characters according to a pre-established iconography, thus rendering them easily identifiable by the public. The skin is subsequently painted with natural pigment and detail in gold leaf.

The performances last for several hours, sometimes the whole night, and the main figure is the dalang. Invested with magical and spiritual powers, the dalang manipulates all the puppets that make up each play. At the same time, he narrates the story, and with the help of an instrument that he places on his toes – cempala -, he marks the beat for the gamelan orchestra accompanying the performance.

All these different forms of shadow puppet theatre are considered

by UNESCO as Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

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In SRI LANKA we can find masks used in the Sanni Yakuma rituals, which combine forms of exorcism and Ayurvedic medicine. According to this belief there are eighteen main diseases provoked by demons that can be at the same time the causes and the cure of these ills, therefore the shaman uses them during the curing ceremony. The main mask is Mahâkola sanni yakâ, represented by a character that displays eighteen small masks around his face.

Also in Sri Lanka there is another type of masks, those of the Kolam Theatre (in Singhalese “kolam” means mask), of a satirical nature and with ritual connotations connected to fertility. In this case, there are three different types of characters: humans, animals and demons. Naga Raska is one of those demons, with several cobras displayed on his head.

The Nô Theatre appeared in JAPAN in the 14th century and was directly influenced by the principles of Zen Buddhism: simplicity, contrition, and discretion. Nô means talent. The masks indicate the presence of gods and are honoured in rituals prior to be used. Their frozen expression is just apparent: as a matter of fact, their manufacturing abides to strict rules that ensure the mask is able to convey different emotions depending on the type of lightning and the viewer’s standpoint.

Now in MYANMAR, the puppets that really stand out are string puppets.

Known as Yok-Thei-Pwe, these puppets are made in a very realistic manner, both in terms of cut, adornments and costumes. They are for this reason very complex in terms of their manipulation. They can articulate all their fingers in order to illustrate the delicacy of the gestures of Burmese etiquette and dance.

The development of this art is partially due to the displacement of the

Thai aristocracy to Burma in the second half of the 18th century, introducing a number of customs connected to puppets and Ramakien. This theatre was so

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successful that king Ba-gyi-daw (1819-1837) not only legislated on the art but also created a specific ministry that would guarantee the fulfilment of these rigid laws.

These performances would serve not only to entertain but would also

contain a ritual dimension and a religious significance. In addition to Ramakien, Jatakas stories (that recount the previous lives of the Buddha) were performed.

For a better understanding of the performances, local legends were introduced into the plots of the Jatakas.

Returning to CHINA, more specifically to the region of Chaozhou, shadow puppets acquire new contours by gaining tri-dimensionality. With fragile clay heads, these rod puppets are manipulated in a fashion similar to that of their predecessors, with a rod in their backs and another two in their hands.

Inspired on opera, these performances are accompanied by an orchestra

and singers.

By travelling to VIETNAM it is possible to find a type of puppet that is

quite different from the others in Southeast Asia: Roi Nuoc. These puppets that move in water sit on a wooden platform that is connected to a bamboo rod held by the manipulator, hidden by a structure also made of bamboo and immersed up to the waist.

Traditionally these performances took place in rice fields and were connected to the agricultural cycles of the fields on the margins of the delta of the Red River or to animistic rituals of fertility. Legends and stories of everyday life in the region were told and therefore the most common characters are farmers, fishermen, mandarins, etc.. The young man riding a buffalo playing the flute (instrument that accompanies the performances) is a recurring figure in these theatres.

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Now in EUROPE, the great tradition goes to glove puppets. With its roots

in ITALY, the Comedia dell’Arte was a decisive factor as regards the development of the peripatetic theatre, of a popular nature and normally taking the form of a social satire, it extended its influence to the peripatetic glove puppet theatre.

Pulcinella, the first of these popular heroes, left descendants spread

over practically all mainland Europe. They share with him some of his features, such as the red nose, the protruding stomach, the fact he is a bigmouth and troublemaker, supported by the use of a club, which he uses to hit his opponents.

More popular yet were Punch and Judy, from ENGLAND, and Guignol,

from FRANCE. The latter was born in the early 1800 in the city of Lyons and brings with him the feelings of revolt and the aspirations of the people of the period of the French liberal revolution. The English couple is now a permanent part of British culture, much to the contentment of both adults and children.

Kasperl, a rod and string puppet is a renowned character from the CZECH REPUBLIC. Fancier than his glove puppet relatives, Kasperl wears a red suit and a red cap with rattles. Also from the same country we may find folk characters, like the Vodniks, a kind of rod and string puppets water goblins and witches.

In the 20th century traditional glove puppets were adapted to new times by contemporary artists and puppeteers that gave then a whole new look.

It was the case of Carl Schröder’s puppets (1904-1997). He would create his own puppets and write and stage his own texts, some of which were adult comedies.

He performed for the army during WW2 and directed puppet films for the DEFA Studios in former GDR. His puppets’ heads are made of papier-mâché and bigger than usual.

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Frieder Simon (1936), another puppeteer from the former GDR, was also faithful to the typical Kasperl, although adapting its figure to more contemporary features and a geometric face, according to the Bauhaus German school.

Another famous character in GERMANY is Faust, represented here by a string puppet by Theo Egglink. It is believed that some of the puppets used by German sailors during WW2 in the Nordmärkisches Puppenspiel company from Admiral Franz Hennig were made by this same puppeteer as well as by many unknown craftsmen.

From VENICE we have a small rod puppet theatre by Virginia Campbell (1914-2016), from Teatro Delle Quattro Stagioni representing the city itself.

But there is more than just glove puppets in Europe. In BELGIUM, one

of the landmarks of the city of Brussels is the Toone Theatre. From the 1830s, these wooden puppets move with a rod and strings connected to their hands.

In Liège we may find other rod puppets - Tchantchès and Nanesse – both very funny and burlesque heavy drinkers.

From the Italian region of SICILY comes the Opera dei Pupi. They are

extremely heavy rod puppets. They were initially used in performances for men and boys in order to instil in them Christian and positivist values. The plays performed are normally based on romances of chivalry and combats, principally in the Charlemagne cycle.

The pupi were recognised by UNESCO as a masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

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Alberto Urdiales is a SPANISH puppeteer. He was the founder

of La Caligüeba and Teatro de la A companies from Madrid and creator of Dona Guisi (Princesa del Guisante) located at the entrance and Duende Coletas on the way out.

In AFRICA, puppets and masks are intrinsically connected to nature – – the forest and its animals – but also to magical forces and rituals and community festivities.

Sogobó (literally, return of the animals) is the name given to the

theatrical expressions of fishermen and farmers from MALI and to the animal sculptures in the same area, colourful and decorated with fabrics. Sogobó incorporates several expressive forms, from dance to song and music, as well as puppets and masks. These performances take place according to agricultural seasons. For the Bamana people, it is essentially devoted to farming, or to fishing, for the Bozos. The performances also serve to mark community events: weddings, circumcisions or even funerals.

Men, especially the younger men, play a central role in these events, given they are the ones who manipulate the puppets, whereas women’s participation is done through song.

We can divide the puppets into two categories: figures representing humans and animals. The latter mirror the enormous symbolism that is given

by African culture to animals. In the Bozo fishing communities, animals such as the hippopotamus, crocodile or the hornbill are mandatory, whereas the human figures represent the different social strata existing in the village.

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In CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA mask-wearing traditions go back to the pre-Columbian era, and mix with subsequent Christian narratives.

In Mexico masks are widely used in the celebration of the Holy Week and the Day of the Dead, but also in Carnival and many other popular festivals.

In the numerous popular traditions, they are worn to symbolize a multitude of characters, some of which are related to historical events of the country.

The figure of the “Spanish man” is often featured by masked dancers, along with other European masks. Masks of animals are persistent in pre-Columbian traditions. The jaguar dance, for instance, is reminiscent of the image of this animal as a symbol of fertility in pre-Columbian imagery. Masks of daemons and skulls are also quite common, the latter being widely used in ceremonies associated with the Day of the Dead.

In Bolivia the Diabladas, a type of dance which represents “Tio de la Mina”, a god from within the mountain, but also the seven deadly sins are rather common. Masks of devils have evolved over time, and are nowadays very elaborate compositions where the so-called “four plagues”, represented by vipers, lizards, toads and ants, are always present. The parade of these masked people can last up to 20 hours and is one of the key elements of the Carnival of Oruro, which is enshrined in the Representative List of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. In Ecuador the Diabladas are also very frequent.

In Colombia, due to the animistic beliefs of Amazonia groups, masks of animals adorned with colourful feathers are very common. These masks are usually worn in ceremonies which celebrate periods of abundance, namely in January and February. The Jaguar is one of the most relevant masks, representing power and danger, and is used by the shamans (traditional priests who are able to contact the spirit world, showing special abilities of prophecy and cure).

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In Peru there are several festivals in which the use of masks is one of the key elements, from the Huaconadas, where the HuacĂłns, masked characters of old people, tour through the houses of the village, to the Cuzco celebrations or the Virgen del Carmen festival. This celebration which takes place in midJuly features masks representing a diversity of characters: inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest, traders of the plateau, enslaved people who worked in gold and silver mines in the area, devils or wine traders. The celebration takes place in the city of Paucartambo and although it honours Nuestra SeĂąora del Carmem, it is characterized by an enormous syncretism due to the mestizo identity of the inhabitants and to ancient Andean traditions.

Glove puppets also reached BRAZIL, namely the northeast region, and

are known as mamulengos. These are puppets, which are physiognomically similar to the people of the region, wearing clothes made of very colourful fabrics that perform plays where improvisation and interaction with the audience are their key elements.

It is in the Alentejo that we have the oldest records of puppets

in PORTUGAL, those known as Bonecos de Santo Aleixo or Santo Aleixo Puppets.

These puppets travelled around several villages in the country performing interactive and provocative shows where the emblematic pronunciation from the Alentejo regions was ever-present. Very often people felt attacked and would throw objects at the puppets. The Portuguese guitar accompanied the performances.

The acclaimed D. Roberto is the Portuguese descendant of the puppet

Pulcinella but unlike his European partners, this glove puppet had no very precise physiognomy. For this reason in Portugal it is common to call any glove puppet a roberto.

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An interesting fact is that in D. Roberto performances, the use of the

swazzle to amplify and distort the voice was used by all the characters, and not only the main protagonist.

In Portugal, several puppeteers acted as big entrepreneurs by taking the glove and string puppet theatre around the country from north to south, travelling round the popular fairs with their peripatetic pavilions. The business and the art of puppets were normally transmitted from fathers to sons. These popular puppeteers were operating up to the 60s, with repertoires that were as diversified as the puppets animating them.

Names of puppeteers such as Faustino Duarte, Henrique Duarte,

Manuel Rosado and Joaquim Pinto.

There are also some one man show puppeteers, like Cesário da Cruz

Nunes. He was unemployed and one day watched António Dias (one of the most known performers of robertos) perform at Feira da Ladra (the Lisbon flea market) and decided to become a puppeteer. He manufactured his own puppets and self-trained with the reef.

Although Roberto’s theatres were at stake given the shortage of puppeteers during the 80’s, there are currently 13 puppeteers performing all over the country. Some – like José Gil and Vítor Santa-Bárbara – are represented here at the museum.

There are other projects with different concerns. The Teatro do Mestre

Gil or The Master Gil Theatre, created in 1943 by the hands of the poet Augusto de Santa Rita (1888-1956) was the first to express concerns of an artistic nature.

The glove puppets, made by Júlio de Sousa, cover a number of characters pertaining to the country’s history.

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An identical gallery of characters was created by Maria Emília Perestrelo who, with only some fabric, needles and a pair of scissors brought to life a number of puppets for children’s programmes on RTP television channel.

More interested in the pedagogical aspect, projects such as Robertscope

or the Teatro de Branca Flor follow the idea of education for art. Associated with their entertaining puppets, these companies wished to make teaching young children fun. The Teatro de Branca Flor was headed by the writer Lília da Fonseca.

Henrique Delgado from the Robertoscope project was one of the most important researchers of the history of Portuguese puppets.

Isabel Andrea founded the Lanterna Mágica group in 1978. This company was also dedicated to staging children’s plays.

In another plan we have the works by Ildeberto Gama. In 2000 he manufactured the puppets for the play “As Guerras de Alecrim e Manjerona”

by António José da Silva, staged by Paulo Matos. This play premiered at Sala Polivalente do Acarte/ Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in 2000 and reran at Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II in 2006.

Carlos Chagas Ramos presented the play “História mais ao menos verdadeira dum senhor e dos seus dois criados” (“More or less true history of a lord and his two servants”) with wood pulp puppets at the first Festa do Avante in 1976 (an annual event organized by the Communist Party).

In 2007 the S.A. Marionetas company, in partnership with Puppetlink from the United Kingdom, staged Shakespeare’s The Tempest using glass puppets made by glass manufacturers from Marinha Grande.

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Olga Neves recreates characters from folk and traditional stories for exhibitions. She builds scenarios and environments depicting such stories, as Alice and the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, and Mouse King and the Horse from The Nut Cracker.

The Companhia de São Lourenço e o Diabo began its activity in 1973, in the field of comic opera (opera buffa). This genre has reached its peak in Portugal during the 18th century, with the playwright António José da Silva, “The Jew”. They performed Portuguese classical texts.

The puppets created by Helena Vaz (plastic artist and puppeteer) are

distinct because of their original form of manipulation, given they are dressed by the artists. They would wear black during the performances so their bodies would go unnoticed, allowing the puppets themselves to stick out.

In addition to the plastic artist, José Alberto Gil (musician) and Fernando

Serafim (tenor) were responsible for the birth of this peripatetic company that, just like the popular puppeteers, travelled from one place to another. Instead of a peripatetic pavilion they used a theatre-cart pulled by a horse.

Teatro de Marionetas do Porto, founded by João Paulo Seara Cardoso in 1988, boosted modern puppet theatre and was followed by many other companies. In the museum you may find his puppets from the play “3ª Estação”, created with Isabel Barros.

As a puppeteer, Delphim Miranda, a teacher and outstanding storyteller, has been working in a universe fostering the children’s imagination and curiosity. These two horsemen and a dragon are his creation from the play “Cavaleiros de uma Távola Qualquer”.

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Nyonica and Dono da Gruta are string puppets manufactured by Jorge

Cerqueira from wood pulp. This art teacher has worked with some puppet theatre companies, such as Fio d’Azeite, in Sintra.

NI, a puppet by Rui Rodrigues, represents a human television. It is manipulated with rods and was manufactured as a prototype for the adaptation of “As Aventuras de João Sem Medo”, a novel by José Gomes Ferreira.

Another puppet from this competition is Sr. Tempo (Mr. Time),

by Miguel Tepes, an elderly man with a cane and a watch on his head.

This watch may work with batteries or hand-wound.

The alliance between puppets and technologies was almost unavoidable:

were the art of puppets not an art open to multiple experiences and challenges!

It was in the 90s that, at least in Portugal, we witnessed the marriage between puppets and animated cinema.

The television commercial “The Singer family”, of the Singer brand, resorted to puppets and chroma key technology, achieving unprecedented results in television.

The film “Desassossego or Disquiet” shot in stop-motion (technique consisting in subdividing the scenes, by photographing every moment) tells the story of Ivan, the owner of the delicatessen whose clients – the man form the tobacco shop, a fat and sensual woman, the marchioness or the old lame man – do everything possible to make Ivan’s life hell until one day he decides to change his business and opens a furniture shop.

The award winning film by José Miguel Ribeiro “A Suspeita “ or “Suspicion” (1994), whose plot focuses on the inside of a train compartment with several rather peculiar characters, is an excellent example of how a puppet can replace an animated drawing, giving it volume.

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CONVENTO DAS BERNARDAS

All these puppets and masks taken from their habitats are today housed in a very special location, the Convento das Bernardas. In the heart of the historical neighbourhood of Madragoa, the nuns of St Bernard, who lived here between 1653 and 1851, connect its name to the occupancy of the convent.

With the departure of the nuns, the Convent has had a number of tenants. It initially functioned as the Lisbon Academic College and then as a dwelling for almost two hundred families of fishermen and fishwives from the area of Aveiro. It has even been said that the cloisters were used to repair boat hulls and to sew the nets. The chapel was Cine-Esperança, a theatre and cinema hall.

With the intervention of the Lisbon City Council at the turn of the millennium, the Convent acquired the layout it has today. The upper floors are still used to house close to thirty families. In the former kitchen there is a restaurant, “A Travessa”. There is also a place for the local community to meet.

The rest of the building is occupied by this Museum that uses the chapel for venues and temporary exhibitions.

Museu da Marioneta Convento das Bernardas Rua da Esperança, 146, 1200-660 Lisboa Tel: +351 213 942 810 Opening times Tuesday to Sunday – 10 am to 6 pm (last admissions 5.30 pm) Free admittance for residents in Lisbon on holidays mornings and Sunday mornings (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 pm) The Museum is closed on Mondays, 1 January, 1 May, 24, 25 December and 31 December (afternoon) Public transportation

• Buses 706 | 713 | 714 | 727

• Train Santos Station

• Tram 25 - 28

• Parking Largo Vitorino Damásio (400m)

GPS 38.707985, -9.155776