“(…) And so begins an impressive crankie (…). As this ethnographic parade unfolded, the audience smiled in wonder at the interplay of images. But the best was yet to come (…). The audience were also encouraged to sing at the top of their voices (…) whilst wiping away tears of laughter. A simple solution, but very well executed.” – Catarina Ferreira, Jornal de Notícias

BIO
Tarumba – Puppet Theatre, under the artistic direction of Luís Vieira and Rute Ribeiro, was founded in 1993 with the aim of producing work of the highest technical and artistic quality, as well as bringing constant innovation to puppet theatre in Portugal.
The company is responsible for the annual programming and production of the International Festival of Puppetry and Animated Forms – FIMFA Lx, which received the 2010 Theatre Critics’ Award from the Portuguese Association of Theatre Critics. Tarumba’s artistic directors received the 2013 Personality Award, part of the National Multimedia Award, presented by APMP – the Multimedia Association, for their work within the scope of FIMFA.
Since 1993, plays by Christopher Marlowe, Federico García Lorca, William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht and other authors have been staged. The technical and artistic qualities of the project have been admired not only in Portugal, but also in countries such as France, the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, India, Pakistan, Hungary and Turkey. At the World Festival of Puppet Art (Prague), the company won the Best Dramaturgy Award and was nominated for the Best Manipulation Award. The shows Mironescópio and This is not Gogol’s Nose, but it could be, with a touch of Jacques Prévert were presented in the IN section of the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes de Charleville-Mézières in 2013 and 2019.

Since its formation, Tarumba has been running experimental workshops on the arts of puppetry and animated forms, notably the Paper Theatre workshops. Work has been carried out in Portugal and internationally. Luís Vieira and Rute Ribeiro were guest artists at the Eugene O’Neill National Puppetry Conference 2024 – Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, United States.
CAMa – Centre for Puppetry Arts is the company’s home base and a centre for project development, which includes the Funicular Project, an international training programme and a documentation centre.

See the full programme for FIMFA Lx26 at tarumba.pt/2026/pt/fimfa.