The group Marionetas de São Lourenço (Puppets of São Lourenço) was born in 1975, although at that time it already had a two-year history under the name Companhia de Opera Buffa. The first steps were taken at the Ar.Co art school facilities. at Largo de São Miguel in Lisbon, where the company presented several shows. Initially with the aim of recovering the traditional theater repertoire for puppets, after the 1974 revolution, it settled on the purpose of touring different areas of the country, then definitively adopting the name of Marionetas de São Lourenço and participating in some MFA cultural promotion campaigns.
The central object for the itinerant component was the theater wagon, easily recognized by the populations of rural areas who still had troupes of jugglers and street vendors in their memory. Despite this familiarity, the theater wagon also operated in a context of spectacularity and surprise: from there came stories, puppets and musicians that triggered reactions in the population, sometimes of affection, sometimes of rejection, but whose proximity was reflected in the way in which, by not having the stage as a form of distance, they incorporated the profound humanity of the puppets. These moments of community gathering allowed the triggering of collective memories. In this regard, Helena Vaz states:
“This Group of Puppets understands by the so-called decentralization, the act of showing that there is a Portuguese cultural heritage that can be used, and showing the public, who don’t even know that it exists and therefore don’t know that it belongs to them, a way of ‘reading’ it, just like teaching a hungry person how to open a can of preserves.” ¹
The artistic training of the company’s three main mentors made this project a unique example of puppet theater in Portugal. Helena Vaz, a trained painter, worked on building puppets and staging shows. having obtained a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1976 and 1977 to dedicate himself “to the study of archaic forms of storytelling, which included the study of stage machinery, staging, sets and theatrical composition of figures.”² José Alberto Gil was a musician and worked as a composer, author of texts and percussionist. Fernando Serafim was a tenor and assumed the role of cicerone-singer and master of ceremonies. In addition to these central elements, other names are added, such as Teresa Gata, puppeteer, or Luís Vieira, later founder of A Tarumba. The group performed accompanied by a chamber orchestra and soloists.
The repertoire mainly favored Portuguese theater, from plays inspired by the traditional songbook, such as “The Count of Germany”, “Gerinaldo, the Atrevido” and “Romance de Dona Mariana” to Gil Vicente – “O Pranto de Maria Parda” and “Lá nas Traseiras do Mundo” – as well as António José da Silva – “A vida do Grande Don Quixote de La Mancha” and “Os Encantos de Medea”
The show’s staging characteristics became a distinctive feature of the company. Visual manipulation was done with the manipulator completely dressed in black behind the puppet’s body, lending his movements to its body, while the heavy clay head was close to the chest, attached to the actor’s neck. The scenic elements used were minimalist, giving priority to sound issues, and for this purpose scene machines were used that are common in Baroque theater, reproducing sounds of nature (such as wind or thunder) or movement mechanisms (for example to simulate the movement of clouds), just as Nicola Sabbatini had invented them in the 17th century, in his treatise Pratica di Fabricar Scene e Machine ne’Teatri.
The company’s affirmation in the Portuguese cultural panorama was revealed, having established a program contract with public television that contributed to the dissemination of its work among a wide audience, whilst internationally it saw a RAI award awarded to director Jorge Listopad for filming the show “The Count of Germany”.
In 1984, the company presented an exhibition dedicated to the puppets of António José da Silva at the Gulbenkian, having participated in the Acarte meetings in 1989 with a show in the Gulbenkian amphitheater with the theater wagon. In 1987 he staged the play “Barnum”, by Solveig Nordlund.
In 1987, the Marionette Museum was created in Largo Rodrigues Freitas, in Lisbon. There, in conditions of extreme precariousness, he developed a program dedicated to school visits as well as continuing to present some of his plays. Part of its collection was later transferred to the current Marionette Museum, under the supervision of EGEAC – Cultura in Lisbon.
The Marionetas de São Lourenço ceased their activity at the beginning of the 1990s, with shows being presented increasingly sporadically.
