A Tarumba

There are too many souls of wood not to love those wooden characters who do indeed have a soul.
- Jean Cocteau

I feel very grateful to puppets... They’re part of our lives and it’s for them that we work every day, and it’s on them, that we can count on every day on stage, to create the wonders we want to share and to live our lives.
- Luís Vieira

In the year in which A Tarumba celebrates 30 years of existence, this installation-exhibition take us on a journey into the imagery of A Tarumba, which means to stun, to wonder, to be confused or perplexed, fascinated or astonished - words that express the company’s general feeling towards the puppetry arts. In its early years, the company gained prominence for its uniqueness, by using string puppets to create shows for teenagers and adults, based on the adaptation of classics, as a way of fostering a love for reading and revealing texts by great playwrights - its first show was Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe. In its artistic path, the company has worked with various manipulation techniques, highlighting the use of shadows, mechanisms, articulated paper figures, objects, screens and innovative devices. The company has performed at numerous festivals in many countries across the world, from Pakistan to India, from France to Turkey. A whirlwind of images that reveal The Secret Life of the Puppets by A Tarumba, with a kitsch touch, lots of glitter and dark humour.


The fingers of our hands are no longer enough to count the 30 years of the company A Tarumba - Teatro de Marionetas, manipulating and bringing the inanimate into life. A Tarumba was created by Luís Vieira, Rute Ribeiro and by a group of people from several different artistic backgrounds, Theatre, Cinema, Sculpture and History of Art. They all shared a common passion for puppetry and wanted to develop of a work of great artistic and technical standard, as well as bringing the constant innovation within the field of Puppetry in Portugal. It is within this context, that the company develops a number of initiatives that help promoting new links between the artistic creation and the audience, using as starting point the mixing of different languages, such as video, puppetry, theatre, visual arts, dance, in other words the language of contemporary puppetry. Apart from the creation of shows, training actions, like the Funicular Project, a programme composed by international workshops, and book publishing, A Tarumba is also in charge of the annual programme and production of FIMFA Lx - International Festival of Puppetry and Animated Forms, since 2001, which has been one of the most acknowledged festivals both nationally and internationally.
Since 1993, the company staged plays such as Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, The Love of D. Perlimplín with Belisa in his Garden by Federico García Lorca, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Mahagonny by Bertolt Brecht, Mironescópio: The Love Machine, Cabaret of Insects: Dracularium Freak, among others.
The artistic and technical qualities of the project, have been recognised not only in Portugal, but also in other countries such as France, Spain, United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, India, Pakistan, Hungary or Turkey. The shows Mironescópioand This is not the Gogol's Nose, but it could be... with a dash of Jacques Prévert were presented in the section IN of the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes de CharlevilleMézières, in 2013 and 2019.
The CAMa - Puppetry Arts Centre is home to the company and a centre for project development. A Tarumba has gathered in CAMa, an important artistic collection. This collection is composed by the company's puppets, “historic” puppets, toy theatres (originals from the 19th century and early 20th century) books about theatre, specially puppet theatre, photos, brochures and others.
A Tarumba is sponsored by República Portuguesa - Ministério da Cultura / Direção-Geral das Artes.