Catalan Theatre Group Stages Puppet Show in Malta
The Catalan company Teatre Nu is staging an interactive giant puppet street performance called “Alice’s Dream” in Valletta. The performance is part of Malta’s International Arts Festival. This cross-border collaboration highlights the interconnected creative landscape of the Mediterranean region.
- Teatre Nu, founded in 2000 by Víctor Borràs and Maria Hervàs, is based in the rural village of Sant Martí de Tous, an hour from Barcelona, where they also run a 50-seat theatre and an international artist residency program. - The performance "Alice's Dream" is part of a long and rich tradition of Catalan street theatre which often incorporates "gegants" (giants), large-scale puppets that are a central feature of local festivals and parades. Another Spanish company, El Carromato, previously brought their 4-meter high dancing puppets to Valletta for the 2018 European Capital of Culture closing events. - Teatre Nu's co-founders, Víctor Borràs and Maria Hervàs, serve as the company's artistic directors, with Borràs often taking on the role of writer and director, and Hervàs handling performance, production, and distribution. - The Malta International Arts Festival, produced by the national organization Festivals Malta, has a strategic focus on fostering international collaborations and using Malta's unique heritage sites as performance venues. - This collaboration is an example of broader European initiatives to foster cultural exchange across the Mediterranean. Programs like Creative Europe support transnational projects to promote cultural diversity and dialogue within the Euro-Mediterranean region. - Catalonia has a vibrant and internationally recognized street theatre scene, with pioneering companies like La Fura dels Baus and Els Comediants known for their large-scale, immersive, and anarchic public performances since the 1980s.
