Marionet: 22 years without a working space

MARIONET IS GRANTED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR THE ARTS UNTIL 2026, BUT STILL HAS NO WORKING SPACE AFTER 22 YEARS

The national arts funding scene is extremely demanding and competitive. On top of that, there is also a State’s chronic underfunding, which inevitably leads to many relevant artistic groups not being able to get funding and struggling with huge constraints to survive, if they manage to do so at all.

Marionet is a theatre company that was founded in Coimbra 22 years ago and that has this city as the centre of its creative activity. Many things make this company special, but a relevant one is its unique intersection of theatre and science. An attempt to summarize in a few lines the 22 years of its non-stop activity would be tedious and incomplete. However, it is important to show how Marionet’s work is unique and special, which is why the company has been financially supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture and, on a smaller scale, by the City Council of Coimbra.

Perhaps one way to achieve that is to briefly mention its activity in this year of 2023:

– It will premiere a documentary on Obstructive Sleep Apnea, created in collaboration with the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra and the Sleep Medicine Centre of the Hospital of Coimbra University (CHUC);

– It will create and present in the Botanical Garden, as part of the Re/Forma initiative, a show about Plants and Medicines and the relationship and interaction between the two;

– It will create and present in the Municipal Library of Coimbra a show about this institution, which is this year completing 100 years of history, and about the role and relevance of such equipment in people’s lives;

– It will create, together with a primary school class from the Solum Sul School, and as part of the CresceRio project of MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, a theatre play about river ecology, biodiversity and sustainability;

– It will guide the collaborative creation and presentation of a play about gender equity in academic environments, in the context of a project under the responsibility of the Rectory of the University of Coimbra;

– It will create and present, with neuroscience researchers spread across several European research institutions, a theatre play about research in neuropsychiatric disorders, within the context of the European project Syn2Psy, coordinated by the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra;

– It will create and present, in partnership with the Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra and the Hospital of Coimbra University (CHUC), a show about the prediction of epileptic seizures based on artificial intelligence algorithms;

– Will create and present, in co-production with the Gil Vicente Academic Theatre (TAGV), a show about the contraceptive pill and the impact it had (and has) in our society;

– It will create and present, together with the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra, three short videos about Health Sciences themes;

– It will organize in Coimbra, together with TAGV, CEIS20, CNC and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research of the University of Coimbra, the second edition of the international conference Theatre about Science, which is already a world reference in the field of intersections between theatre and science.

 

In addition to these initiatives, during the year 2023 it will continue to:

 

– Present bimonthly sessions of public readings of science-related plays, as part of its Reading Theatre with Science project;

– Promote the collaborative translation of science-related plays, as part of its Collaborative Translation Project;

– Provide access to the public to consult and borrow books from the library of its Documentation Centre on the Performing Arts and Science;

– Organize activities for children, combining theatre and science;

– Promote the presentation of its productions in other places of the country and abroad.

 

All this activity has to be prepared, developed and presented somewhere. Imagine what it is to do all this without having a working space. Well, that’s precisely what happens to the Marionet theatre company.

For the last 22 years, it has been asking the City Council of Coimbra for a working space with the required and sufficient conditions to, as a professional artistic group based in Coimbra, perform its unique and important creative, training, research and cultural offer functions.

It gets the needed financial support from the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, but the subsequent executives of the City Council of Coimbra have not yet had the will and the boldness to help create a physical space dedicated to the intersections between performing arts and sciences, which is the only one of its kind in Portugal.

When will the City Council of Coimbra finally find a space for the Marionet theatre company, whose work is recognised nationally and internationally? Aren’t 22 years enough?