Place
Mask theater show
By André Louro and Catarina Santana
Available for tour
An elderly couple living in an isolated village in the hinterland of Portugal receives a postcard with good news: the birth of a grandchild. The couple then decides to gather some gifts in a package to send their newborn grandson, who is abroad, and engage in a long and winding journey by foot. With the gift bundle safely tight under their arms and a sweet lust for life, the two will experience a succession of small and tender adventures, share some memories, and even put out a fire. At the end of their quest they eventually manage to reach... the nearest town’s post office!
HONORABLE MENTION - 1st Fundão Iberic Theatre Fair, 2019
Place is a silent, word-less, show of physical theater, which uses object manipulation and body expression through the use of larval masks.
The larval mask is an adaptation of the Basel Carnival masks created by the theater pedagogue Jacques Lecoq in the 1960s. These are big and simple masks that have not yet manage to define themselves into a fully-formed human face. Beings not yet fully developed, or already losing their features, going back to a larval state. The masks wear daily life attire and meet everyday realistic situations, that are then expressed through the masks.
“The story enacted in Place overlaps with the history and the context behind the birth of this new theatre company. (...)” Jornal Expresso , Cláudia Galhós, August 1, 2015
"50 minutes of many lives represented by two lives. From birth to old age or from old age to birth, about life in isolation, a poem of forms, of senses and in the end, of love." Des , Amaro Figueiredo, March 15, 2018
"Without strange formalities, the actors – founders of 'Companhia de Chanca' – stand for a theater that has its core in the right place: the people. And, with an outstanding sensitivity, they build a theater in the community, with the community and for the community."
JUP, Inês Sincero, December 28, 2020