Maravillas de Oriente
Trailer
Synopsis
Promotional summary video (5 min 45 s) of Maravillas de Oriente (Les Meravelles de l'Orient), a street-and-stage puppet show by the Catalan company Pa Sucat, from Valls. A Muslim minstrel, a down-at-heel knight back from the Crusades and a gruff shepherd who plays the bagpipe to eat form a ragtag troupe that tours squares telling ballads with wooden puppets and an improvised travelling booth. Their ballads follow a brave knight who rescues a lady from a Saracen captain and then from a dragon holding her in a cave. Written by Jordi Jubany and directed by Eudald Ferré and Lluís Graells, the show runs about 55 minutes and is aimed at families from age five.
Context & Trivia
The show grows out of the passage in which Ramon Llull, in his Llibre de contemplació de Déu, describes medieval puppet theatre: Pa Sucat's traditional Catalan glove puppets stand in for the lost bavastells, the polychrome wooden figures of the Middle Ages, and the look of actors and puppets is drawn from Pieter Bruegel's paintings. Eudald Ferré designed the set, props and costumes and built the puppets; the puppeteers are Eudald Ferré, Jordi Jubany and Pep Boada, and the music (original pieces and adaptations of early tunes by Quim Carranza) is played live on a bagpipe modelled on 11th-century instruments. Founded in 1986 in Valls, Pa Sucat is one of the few companies still building and performing the traditional Catalan puppet. The show won first prize at the Concurs de Joglars de la Llegenda de Sant Jordi in Montblanc, Best Visual Proposal at the 22nd Mostra Internacional de Titelles a la Vall d'Albaida and the Young Jury award at Titirijai 2010 in Tolosa.
Puppeteers
Eudald Ferré, Jordi Jubany, Pep Boada
Puppet design
Eudald Ferré
Puppet companies
Compañía d'Espectacles Pa Sucat
Puppet building
Eudald Ferré
Direction
Eudald Ferré, Lluís Graells
Writing
Jordi Jubany
Cast
Eudald Ferré, Jordi Jubany, Pep Boada
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