Artist or collective name: Marionet Associação Cultural
Biography
Marionet is a theatre company founded in 2000 and based in Coimbra, Portugal. Our work is geared towards the promotion and dissemination of artistic and scientific cultures, through cross-fertilisation activities between the performing arts and the sciences.
In our investigation, creation and communication work, we regularly partner with theatres and scientific research centres, and we collaborate on various research projects.
What drives us is questioning and reflecting on the world, supported by this disciplinary crossroads. And it is in this context that we create shows, carry out research, organise conferences and readings, provide training, produce videos, publish books, and share a documentation centre.
Over more than 25 years of continuous activity, Marionet has staged more than 50 shows in Portugal and abroad, the vast majority of which were original science-themed productions.
Country of the artist / collective: Portugal
Country of the artwork: Portugal
Language: Portuguese (with English subtitles)
Disciplines: Theatre
First release / Production year: 2021
Hosting institution or organization: Teatro da Cerca de São Bernardo (Coimbra, Portugal)
Project description
‘Countless Voices’ is a theatre show inspired and informed by the experience of hearing voices.
For those who haven’t lived through the experience of hearing voices, it is difficult to put themselves in the place of those who do. In an attempt to lessen this difficulty, we have tried to get closer to that reality by, throughout the whole of the creative process, listening and questioning those that live with it, as well as imagining what circumstances in our own life experiences would allow us to understand what the sensorial experience of hearing voices that other people don’t hear might be.
Throughout the centuries, theatre has portrayed the human experience in its most diverse aspects. As a collective art, it results from the gathering of a diversity of artistic visions, which we purposely exacerbated in constructing this show. Therefore, the scenes that constitute it result from a multiplicity of voices and reflect different perspectives and sensitivities towards this phenomenon. The intimate discourses of these inner voices, and of those who hear them, appear here in leading roles, in a fiction inspired by realities that are often beyond us.
The diversity of experiences within the universe of people who hear voices is surprising. Inner voices, outer voices, with a negative or positive inclination, insulting, flattering, wise, verbose, interspersed, whispered, distant, known, unknown, foreign, direct, in second or third person, of living people, of dead people, religious voices, worldly voices, voices that can be seen, voices of children, of adults, transforming voices. The perceived limits to what we call reality are challenged by the many dimensions of this phenomenon.
We hope to provide our visiting audience with an intense experience related to the experience of hearing voices and, above all, to open the door to reflection and to a broader discussion of this subject.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Playwright | Andreia Fernandes, Joana Ferrajão, Mário Montenegro, Nuno Geraldo
Direction | Mário Montenegro
Cast | Ana Teresa Santos (Cristina, Lídia, voices), Mafalda Canhola (Íris, voices), Nuno Geraldo (Francisco, Gabriel, uncle, voices), Sílvia Santos (Paula, Natércia, penitent, voices), Isilda Sanches (Voice)
Original Soundtrack | Rita Redshoes
Original Soundtrack and Sound Design | Marcelo dos Reis
Audio Installation | Sílvio Correia Santos
Lighting Design and Technical Direction | Danilo Pinto
Set and Costume Design | Pedro Andrade
Graphic Support | Joana Corker
Executive Production | Francisca Moreira
Production Assistance | Arianna Angioli
Hair Design | Carlos Gago – Ilídio Design
Translation | Susana Pires
Promotional Video | Tiago Cerveira
Video Registry | João Cunha – STUDIO
Scientific Consultancy | Celina Vilas-Boas, Nuno Faleiro, Rita Alcaire, Tiago Pires Marques
Interviewers | Celina Vilas-Boas, Maria Dias, Tiago Pires Marques
Production / display conditions
The show can be performed indoors or outdoors; in either case, a sound system is required. . Stage with minimum dimensions of 8m in width and 6m in depth.
Accessibility
Although the show is designed to be performed without the use of accessibility tools, for our performances in Portugal we always include at least one session with interpretation in Portuguese Sign Language. We have also staged performances with audio description and subtitles, but these arrangements, like others relating to accessibility for people with disabilities, must always be coordinated on a case-by-case basis with the production team and the venue/event organisers.
Link to artwork / further information:
Contact
https://www.facebook.com/marioneteatro
