Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora
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The Ancient Olive Tree

based on the novel “Escavadoras” by Marta Pais Oliveira

M.12 . 00h45
The Ancient Olive Tree
A yellow house was built on a hill that stretches as far as the eye can see, and the family living inside is threatened by the construction of a road. There is a space beginning to be gutted by some dust of infinitesimal hope — which is what keeps us going, despite the horror.
In this house, everyone sees the same thing in very different ways. And that pulls them apart — yet also brings them together.
It is a place of contrasts. Love gives way to desolation; the snowfall gives way to fire.

There is the individual pain of that family, and there is a supposed collective progress in the construction of a road that connects two points once far apart. To the road builders, this house is an anonymous space. For those who dwell within, the house is their home; it is the road that will be the anonymous space.
This story is cyclical and provokes abyssal disconnects. I experience something one way and cannot understand the way you feel it. There are many forces of power that manipulate actions and open the door to dehumanization.
The ancient olive tree possesses an apparent immobility and deep-seated roots in the face of changes in space and time—the birth of the yellow house, the passing or the permanence of people. The feminine universe is the center; there are ailments one tries to cure in women, such as double vision. When we uproot a plant, we see the roots, the interruption. Even with the root of a tooth: in the root remains the absence of what was once whole. What is that absence in a rootless person?
The narrative is presented through the Ancient Olive Tree, with characters constantly encroaching upon one another, like someone wanting to better tell their point of view, attempting to capture the polyphony of the novel. We all have many voices in our heads—our own, those of others, and their opposites. And these voices tend to be contradictory.
There are non-linear advances and retreats, and a plunge into the unconscious and madness, between the real—is reality merely each person's hallucination?—and the unreal. We dance between the exterior and the interior. On one hand, the external concrete (even in its double meaning, that of cement); on the other, the emotional and internal reverie within the minds of that family. They move between sleep, dream, wakefulness, and a reality difficult to comprehend. With emotional breadths: moments of celebration, of intense joy, moments in which one loves and in which one hurts. Things break, they shatter; objects and illusions are splintered. One seeks a primary tenderness, the root to which to return.

collaborators . partners . co-producers

video

art

DIRECTOR Clara Ribeiro
STAGING Clara Ribeiro
ORIGINAL TEXT Marta Pais Oliveira
TEXT ADAPTATION Marta Pais Oliveira
ART CONSULTANT Filipa Mesquita
PERFORMANCE Clara Ribeiro, Neusa Fangueiro
ART DIRECTOR enVide neFelibata
PUPPETS enVide neFelibata
PUPPET BUILD SUPPORT Joaquim de Sousa
SET DESIGN enVide neFelibata
SET BUILD enVide neFelibata, Migvel Tepes
SET FABRICS Marta Fernandes da Silva
PROPS enVide neFelibata, Joaquim de Sousa, Migvel Tepes
COSTUMES Patrícia Costa
MUSIC Hugo Morango
VIDEO enVide neFelibata
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR César Cardoso
LIGHT DESIGN César Cardoso
PROMOTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY Ana Filipa Rodrigues
PROMOTIONAL VIDEO Nuno Pinto
VIDEO ANIMATION Pedro Araújo
DESIGN enVide neFelibata
PROMOTIONAL TEXTS Clara Ribeiro, Filipa Mesquita, Marta Pais Oliveira
EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION Hélder David Duarte
PRODUCTION Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora
ART RESIDENCE Academia de Música de Espinho, Fossekleiva Kultursenter
SUPPORT República Portuguesa - Cultura, DGARTES – Direção-Geral das Artes, Município de Espinho/Câmara Municipal de Espinho, Município de Gondomar
THANKS Fértil Cultural, Folk & Wild, Franzisca Aarflot, Iain Halket, Niels A. W. Jensen

download

OLIVEIRAMILENAR - CLASSIFICAÇÃO ETÁRIA -- PT.PDF 1.7 MB
IMAGERY ARCHIVE PROMO 3.3 MB
IMAGERY ARCHIVE TESTIMONIALS 15.3 MB
IMAGERY ARCHIVE REHEARSALS 25.4 MB

PROMO DOSSIER - EN 1.4 MB
PROMO DOSSIER COMPRESSED - EN 738.5 KB

agenda

15 MAY 2026 . FRIDAY . 21h30
Auditório de Espinho – Academia, Espinho, Aveiro■ ■ ■

root creation

Original projects that aim to promote a broad artistic language and creative freedom for creators to challenge themselves artistically and dramatically, as well as in the exploration of interpretation, puppetry, and object theater. These creations are a fundamental reflection of their creators' concerns.
We decided on this designation due to the genesis of the name that gives us rise — Mandrake (Mandrágora), a plant associated with a certain mysticism. That root is also the origin point of our structure, which, in a very many-skilled way, branches out in diverse paths. We're a creative team that considers and analyzes each other's personal concerns and also challenges itself that lead to discoveries which affirm the art of theater and, more specifically, of puppetry.
More than two decades later, this form and figure emerged in a long process of discovery. We went through collective creations, invited directors, and gave voice to the artists who make up the creative core of the structure. Therefore, we believe we've achieved a clearer way of indicating the potential paths and trajectories of a collective composed by individual choices.

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