Hugo and Ines at La Puntual in Barcelona
I don’t know how I missed this , but there’s a theater in Barcelona dedicated to puppetry! And they are holding their 17nth International puppet festival, which has been going on for the last two weeks. And miraculously, I found out about in time to see two of my favorite performers (Hugo and Ines) performing in it.
The theater is called La Puntual, and it’s been around since 2005. It’s the brainchild of Eugenio Navarro Llabrés, a puppeteer and director who has been working as a puppeteer in Barcelona since 1976.
Eugenio Navarro Llabrés, in his studio.
He founded the marionette company La Fanfarra with two other puppeteers, and in 1983 they opened an alternative theatre space named after their most popular character Malic. In 1999 that theatre won a special citation from the city for excellence in arts. In 2005 Llabrés opened La Puntual, and has been bringing international puppet companies and producing shows since then.
This is the 17nth International puppet festival, and I found out about it just in time to buy a ticket to the marvelous duo of Hugo and Ines. They are performing a show called Miniatures, and their work is always filled with beauty, grace, humor, and creativity.
Hugo and Ines are from Peru (well, Ines is from Bosnia), and they have been performing together since 1986. They have performed all over the world, and their work combines dance, mime, puppetry, music, and humor. They transform their hands, knees, shoulders, feet, elbows and other body parts into characters, and do it with amazing virtuosity and grace. I’ve seen them perform twice before: in London and in New York, now I’m going to see them perform here in Barcelona!
Here’s a video of some of their work:
The festival will continue next week also, with a very intriguing show called Theatre of Paper. I’m going to try to check that one out as well. And they’ve got lots of other performances coming up. Definitely want to add this theatre into my rotation!
You can find more information about La Puntual and the Festival online on their website: http://www.lapuntual.info
You can find out more about Hugo and Ines on the World Encyclopedia of Puppet Arts page (they don’t seem to have their own website.)
They perform at La Puntual on the following days:
Friday October 21 at 6pm.
Saturday 22 October at 12 noon. and 6 p.m.
Sunday 23 October at 12 noon. and 5 p.m.
The show is about 45 minutes long, performed in Spanish, and is recommended for ages 6+.
