Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora

Casa Educativa da Marioneta

18 Apr 2026 . Saturday
Another session of the Puppet Education Center took place today at Casa Branca de Gramido in Gondomar. This program, part of the Puppet School, is organized by the Mandrágora Theater and Puppets Company with support from the Municipality of Gondomar.
It was a beautiful morning by the river, where we were able to delve deeper into the exploration of materials, family bonding, community well-being, and artistic experience through the visual exploration that puppetry does so well, the cheerful mood as the warm weather approaches, the extraordinary landscape visible through the window, where our gaze rests on the Douro River, and a team of professionals committed to the project’s success and our shared well-being—a profoundly creative well-being.

Not everything that comes to the net... : https://marionetasmandragora.pt/vemrede

Mar~Marionetas is coming soon.

16 Apr 2026 . Thursday
Mar~Marionetas - Espinho International Puppet Festival is coming soon. It all began in 2006, and we’ve grown together—and together we’re celebrating 20 years!
Even before we kick off the program for the general public, we’re dedicating the Festival to school-age audiences. From April 20 through the end of April, the Festival’s mascots, Mário and Neta, will visit every school in the municipality to welcome everyone to this year’s edition and to greet the little ones in preschool and elementary school.
In early May, the “GIGANTES do Mar” workshop kicks off — a bird-building workshop using sustainable materials on a large scale. Registration is now open.
The Festival will once again visit all schools in the municipality, presenting the show “The Cat and the Mouse Who Became Friends” — inspired by the work of Luís Sepúlveda — to all children in elementary school and preschool.
The program for the general public begins on May 15 and runs through the end of May, featuring national and international shows, workshops and exhibitions, gatherings and games, performances, indoor shows, and outdoor shows.

Mar~Marionetas : https://marionetasmandragora.pt/marmarionetas

Puppet Stage

16 Apr 2026 . Thursday
The setup for the next exhibition by the Mandrágora Puppet Theater is currently underway in Paços de Ferreira, Freamunde, and will be on display until June 1.
At the invitation of the Omessa Cultural Association, the Mandrágora Puppet Theater brings this exhibition — curated by Rúben Gomes — to the “invisible voice,” thereby fulfilling a fundamental role for the company: to showcase its collection and bring it to life through the numerous exhibitions currently on display throughout the country.
Don’t miss the chance to see and engage with the project that brings puppets to the stage.

24 years of Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora!

2 Apr 2026 . Thursday
We all deserve congratulations!
Clara Ribeiro, Filipa Mesquita, and Rúben Gomes have been the core of Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora for 24 years.
Let’s celebrate, because celebrating is essential for our well-being, because celebrating is also a form of expression, because celebrating means being resilient in the face of happiness.
But what are we celebrating? These 24 years? More than that, we’re celebrating the people, the gathering places, the moments, and the experiences.
We could count them in the tens and hundreds or more. We have had 277 collaborators working with us, we have taken on dozens of interns, we have worked with 127 organizations, we have been involved in over 300 projects, we have created more than 75 productions, 14 co-productions, 28 theater projects in institutions, more than 30 community theater projects, more than 20 shows resulting from training programs, more than 30 visual art creations for other companies, more than 50 workshops, 11 exhibitions, …
We have toured 975 venues, 172 cities, 9 countries, and 518 festivals and events. We have performed in Bulgaria, Canada, Greece, Macau, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and the United States of America. We have given over 5,700 performances, with an audience exceeding 1 million.
Today we are a core group of 5 people, and Joaquim de Sousa and Eurico Santos are our partners. We organize the programming for 2 puppet theater festivals; we were founded in Vila do Conde, established our headquarters in Gondomar, and the Company is based in Espinho.
Above all, our goal is to promote the art of puppetry. We are driven by a force that defies explanation but spreads contagiously between the stage and the audience. We remain committed, focused on our mission: art, culture, theater, puppetry, a social perspective on the world around us, as well as a reflection on who we are, what unites us, and what drives us.

Mandrágora Anniversary : https://marionetasmandragora.pt/aniversario

Let’s always celebrate World Theatre Day.

27 Mar 2026 . Friday
And may this passion that drives us inspire all those who consider culture a fundamental value, as well as others who have not yet discovered just how incredible this art form is.
To the companies, the artists, the playwrights, the technicians, producers, programmers, set designers, costume designers, ushers, theater educators and researchers, outreach teams, box office staff, and so many others who live for the moment when the curtain rises over the auditorium, filled with our audience, and the show begins. Long live the theater!

March 21 is celebrated as...

21 Mar 2026 . Saturday
March 21 marks World Puppetry Day, World Poetry Day, and the arrival of spring. Over the course of several months, the Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora visited various schools in the municipality of Gondomar, where it held a series of workshops with children and young people. The project, “Vestir a Primavera” (Dressing Spring), is an art installation taking place in the gardens of the Gondomar Municipal Library, as well as inside the building. For several years now, it has celebrated a community project aimed at enhancing the local area, the space itself, and collective creation in the spirit of shared celebration. Proudly, the children held their homes, nests, and objects they had built within their school environment, which opened its doors to allow the company’s team to develop a multidisciplinary project.
Thirty stories were created and later recorded as audio, and the children inhabited these nests, giving them life, shapes, figures, and characters with a unique identity.
These small dwellings—metaphors for the nests we all inhabit, where we feel safe, protected, and eager to grow so that one day we may fly higher—will remain suspended until the end of Ei! Marionetas—Gondomar International Puppet Festival.
The young representatives from various schools came to the Library, proudly carrying their homes and leaving them on display.
The stories are also available online via the Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora website and can be read as well as listened to in the voices of the company’s actors.

Maria and Petrúcio.

10 Mar 2026 . Tuesday
Maria and Petrúcio built their home in front of a tree with deep roots and had three daughters: Violeta, Helga, and Mariana, who never left home, not even for Lucília's birth. Someone begins to see double and says they have found the souls of the world, someone gets up at dawn to see better, insanity after insomnia. Petrúcio fell silent and watched the threatening advances of the excavators gutting the earth, prowling around the land. The night of the great fire will come.

The Ancient Olive Tree : https://marionetasmandragora.pt/oliveiramilenar

The Creation.

27 Jan 2026 . Tuesday
“A Oliveira Milenar” (The Ancient Olive Tree) intends to be a deeply evocative performance that explores the conflict between childhood nostalgia, the threat of loss, and the undeniable force of progress. In this dramatic tableau, the yellow of the house emerges from the landscape symbolizing light, yet it faces the shadow of change represented by metallic monsters that destroy everything in their path.
The story unfolds in a universe in constant transformation, where nature, tradition, and family intimacy confront the voracity of progress. The performance aims to be a poem in motion, with characters who entwine themselves around the Ancient Olive Tree, which acts as a silent and immobile witness to past times and emotions. The presence of this ancestral figure serves as a link between the life that reproduces and the life that fades away, questioning permanence and transience, the root and the scar. This Olive Tree represents those who have gone—in the case of this family, the mother, Maria.
With every uprooting of the earth, with every piece of nature that disappears, the reflection arises: what is lost, what is gained?
We intend to transport the spectator to the heart of a conflict that, seemingly, has no exit. Throughout the play, the yellow house becomes a stage for dreams and nightmares, for laughter and tears, for kisses and screams, where life unspools.
This creation intends to be a visual and sonic poem that creeps into our consciousness and, through the power of poetry, leaves us with the taste of scorched earth and the scars of the past for future generations. In this performance, we intend to look with respect at the roots that keep us firm.
Life and struggle blend together, showing the fragility of our existence and the need to resist, with courage, the forces that attempt to destroy our dreams.

The Ancient Olive Tree : https://marionetasmandragora.pt/oliveiramilenar

The Art Residence.

26 Jan 2026 . Monday
The process of an artistic residency is a concentration of efforts focused on creation. An isolation and a convergence of distinct places, which bring creatives together, lead to a fundamental impulse for structuring foundations, in this case, “The Ancient Olive Tree”, the new production by Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora. Clara Ribeiro, artistic director and performer of this work, and Rúben Gomes, in charge of visual design, thus initiate the project.
Time, something demanded by creation itself, requires a space of its own. Artistic creations are slow-paced; they need space to take root and grow solid.

The Ancient Olive Tree : https://marionetasmandragora.pt/oliveiramilenar

Art Residence.

21 Jan 2026 . Wednesday
We are grateful to the Fossekleiva kultursenter og Berger Museum, and Franzisca Aarflot produksjoner for hosting the creative process of A OLIVEIRA MILENAR.
This moment and time for research, experimentation, and listening are fundamental to the design of this creation, allowing us to elevate the performance to a deeper cultural dimension. It is a privilege to have this time to build this universe and reflect on how the audience will inhabit it.
The creation borns here, at the meeting point of thought, body, and space—a living process built with time, attention, and presence.

The Ancient Olive Tree : https://marionetasmandragora.pt/oliveiramilenar