The Puppet Theater of Retiro, a space dependent on the Culture, Tourism, and Sports Area of the City Council of Madrid, hosts from today, July 5th, until August 17th, a new edition of the ‘Summer Puppet’ cycle, which marks the beginning of its summer programming. The performances can be seen at dusk, when the bleachers of the Puppet Theater are already in the shade and the heat subsides. This year’s proposal includes 14 performances by seven national companies, three of them from Madrid, targeting both family audiences, both children and adults.
Opening the program today and tomorrow (July 5th and 6th) is the Basque company Picuentos with their show Hariak Zirkus. With Monsieur Butterfly, we can enjoy a wonderful puppet circus, with clowns, contortionists, and a fakir. A whole troupe that, to the rhythm of the music of an old barrel organ, will delight the audience.
On July 12th and 13th, the Madrid-based company Hilando Títeres, one of the most important in the region with 25 years of experience, will bring the absolute premiere of their new show Cleo and the Sea. In this story, we will discover that Cleo gets angry every day, at all hours, for everything and for no reason. She believes that if she can get others to leave her alone, she will manage not to get so angry. But it’s possible that others are not responsible for her anger.
On July 19th and 20th, the Andalusian company Los títeres de Miguel Pino will arrive with their show Peneque one hundred percent brave. The paths and secrets of a puppeteer will be unveiled in a heartfelt love story. The puppets of Miguel Pino have been traveling the squares and theaters of the entire national territory for over 65 years. Currently, the company is led by the second generation of puppeteers, Miguel and Antonio, sons of the legendary Miguel Pino. Peneque one hundred percent brave is precisely a tribute to his figure. The character of Peneque is known mainly in Andalusia, but such is the memory he has left in several generations of children that he has statues honoring him in up to 15 towns, such as Astorga and Trujillo.
On July 26th and 27th, it will be the turn of the Madrid-based company Lupe and Luisa and their show In the Forest. A story that speaks of the need to be heard and to have contact with nature. What Fernando wants most is to go to a forest to play, have a picnic, and everything a child can think of in such a place. However, his parents are always busy, barely listening to him, and ignoring him. In this family environment, it will be up to him to take the reins of the story, his life, and this adventure, in which, at first, he will try to get his parents on board.
The Three Little Pigs, an adaptation of the classic tale by the Valencian company La Estrella, will arrive on August 2nd and 3rd at the Puppet Theater of Retiro. With their usual line of work that mixes clown with puppet theater, the clowns of Teatro La Estrella will try to tell the mythical tale, which is about three brothers who are already old enough to leave the family home and decide to seek their own luck. Each pig has a personality, and this is reflected in the way they decide to build their new house, where they will protect themselves from the threat of the fearsome Big Bad Wolf.
On August 9th and 10th, the company El retablo de la ventana will bring a story based on one of the poems by María Elena Walsh, The Little Wizard of Gulugú. In a faraway village lives a wizard whom everyone calls that. For many years, he has been trying to perform the perfect spell, but it doesn’t work. To turn anything into what he desires, he needs an element that only María Elena has, who, along with her boyfriend Antonio, visits the hill of the wizard’s castle to see the moon. Will the wizard achieve his goal? A fun and dynamic show that will delight both young and old, where they will remember the poetic song sung by Rosa León and the beauty of María Elena Walsh’s poems.
To finish, on August 16th and 17th, the veteran company La Tartana from Madrid will offer the show Isabela’s Journey, which won the 2022 Award from the XI International Baroque Children’s Contest of the Almagro Classical Theater Festival. Isabela’s Journey is a puppet and actor play, with live music, that tells with humor and simplicity a story of love and adventures based on the novel The English Spanish Woman by Cervantes. Ships, storms, treasures, magical unicorns, a convent, castles, sword duels, kings and palaces, poisonings, and horse battles are the ingredients of this thrilling and fun play, a free version of this exemplary novel by our most universal writer.
Tickets for all shows are available to the public on Fridays at 10:00 a.m. They are free, upon download on the website www.teatrotiteresretiro.es /
