Ei! Marionetas / Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora

Ei! Marionetas - Encontro Internacional de Marionetas de Gondomar 2025

The Devilish Barber [ SHOW ]

• Valdevinos Teatro de Marionetas < Sintra
• M/3 . 15mins . free access


• Able to entertain young and old alike, Dom Roberto, the hero of these stories, fights giants and monsters, saves princesses, and is even capable of defeating death itself.
  The Dom Roberto Theatre is part of the imagination of older Portuguese people who still remember the robertos at fairs, pilgrimages, beaches, and squares around the country. It has been around for about four centuries and has been revitalized in recent years by various companies, including the Valdevinos.

The Devilish Barber

Dom Roberto is getting married and decides to go to the barber to have his hair cut and shaved. Finding the price too expensive, he haggles over the price, which triggers a wild fight that culminates in the death of the barber. The police arrive to investigate, followed by the devil to condemn him and finally Death to take him away, but Dom Roberto manages to resist them all.

what the festival has to say

The traditional Dom Roberto theatre, known as Robertos theatre, has been identified as a national intangible heritage that needs to be preserved, and has been fundamental for Ei! Marionetas to raise awareness of the puppeteers who, throughout the country, keep this extraordinary form of popular theatre alive. Street theatre, puppet theatre, which through its simplicity and its naive, sometimes even crude atmosphere, takes us back to a theatre that comes to us from an international family of puppets spread across several continents.

With a deep connection to the people on the streets, in churchyards, on beaches, in gardens, and in squares, it has managed to withstand the passage of time, pressures, and economic fragility because, above all, it embodies extraordinary elements of the theatrical art of puppetry and, above all, has a deep relationship of empathy with the public that has spanned centuries.

Valdevinos Teatro de Marionetas

Although new technologies are advancing at lightning speed, nothing can surpass a child's imagination. And it is to them, the children, that we have dedicated our work since 1997.

We started in Sintra, and we continue in Sintra, where urban and rural realities meet and become an exciting challenge.

Over the years, shared with many companions and supported by those who believe in us, these Valdevinos have followed a natural path, learning, teaching, entertaining... we have brought many texts to the stage, some original, others by Portuguese authors such as António Pedro, António Torrado, Jorge Salgueiro, José Gomes Ferreira, Alice Vieira, José Jorge Letria, Luis Vaz de Camões, Margarida Botelho, and even a handful of classics of children's literature, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Miguel Cervantes.

We seek to address various themes and techniques, use various materials, welcome all ideas, and we like to take our theatre everywhere, not only to fixed locations, but above all on a travelling basis to schools, libraries, beaches, fairs, or places that, due to their specificity, are suited to the magical spirit that puppet shows undoubtedly have the capacity to offer, valuing and fostering a taste for this art.

art

links

• facebook.com/valdevinos.teatro.marionetas
• instagram.com/valdevinos.teatro.marionetas
• valdevinos.com
• youtube.com/@valdevinos.teatro.marionetas

download

that's how

The Robertos are coming!!! It's a phrase that echoes in the air.

This traditional form of theater, puppet theater in Portugal, has been a constant presence at the Encontro, and has always been present in the Porto metropolitan area. At a certain point, it was necessary to revive it in order to continue this heritage, which guarantees us access to puppet theater, free of charge, outdoors, in gardens and squares, as it is so characteristic of a popular art form, outside the elites, which has managed to survive despite its difficult history.

The Valdevinos Teatro de Marionetas company brought us two stories, “O Barbeiro Diabólico” (The Devilish Barber) and “O Pescador” (The Fisherman). This simple form of theater, of creating wonder, so delightfully done, with the echo of the reed in the air. A tent made of flowery tones and blue stripes, with pink puppets with rounded heads, reminiscent of our traditional puppets from Barcelos. This mixture, where giant sticks and razors burst onto the scene and elicit sincere and loud laughter from the little ones who tirelessly shout at the characters who seem not to understand the simplest theatrical game. And the devil and death parade in the bravery of our Roberto, a true hero of the people.