Sinopsis
In Bairro das Estacas, immediately to the west of Teatro Maria Matos, there is a garden, sheltered between modernist buildings that give the neighbourhood its own particular history. We’ll grab our bags and, even before we set off on holiday, we’ll go out into the open air, which is where everything happens in the city and where its life is celebrated. Everyone knows that stories are meant to be told in the shade of the trees, while we stretch out on the grass and imagine forms and visualise shapes for the characters that we are hearing about. We are going to create unlikely animals that enter into the fables we listen to and then run off into the garden where flowers are invented and where we make portable kitchen gardens to take home with us. We’re going to eat drawings and take a stroll through the garden where shows take place with more or less music, telling us stories about children’s dreams, and others where the characters are looking for their place in the story itself. We will take a family photograph, which, after all, is the one we want the most, and then, finally, we can all go off on our holidays and enjoy a well-deserved rest.
Bairro das Estacas
Designed by the architects Formosinho Sanchez and Rui d’Athouguia, the project for the Bairro das Estacas (the “Neighbourhood of Stakes”) and its gardens dates from 1950. It has received several national and international awards and was considered, at the time, to be the first construction that coherently applied the Athens Charter.
The Athens Charter is the urban planning manifesto resulting from the 4th International Congress of Modern Architecture (Congrès internationaux d’architecture moderne – CIAM), held in Athens in 1933. It deals with the so-called Functional City and proposes the separation of residential, leisure and work areas, recommending that the density of traditional cities should be replaced by a garden city, in which the buildings are located in low-density green areas.
In order to implement this project, the architects introduced some local alterations to the Alvalade Urbanisation Plan, proposing the building of a group of four parallel blocks, standing on “stakes” or pillars, with green spaces between them. In this way, a division was established between the parking space for cars and the pedestrian areas. Each housing unit had spacious balconies overlooking green spaces, receiving the sun from both east and west. The prevailing ethical imperative was that of universal housing, especially after the 1948 congress of Portuguese architects, which was strongly opposed to the national Fascist regime. The Bairro das Estacas is considered to be an experiment with quite distinct urban, landscape and typological features.
Circolando Charanga
A poetic and visual show, Charanga is based on two symbolic objects: the bicycle and the brass band. It begins way down in the bowels of the earth to create a desire for the elements that are missing there: light, air, travel… It searches for solitude, the nostalgia of the miners… and invents a child’s dream for them. A dream of taking flight and escaping into the circles of a carousel. A dream that is told with music. The music of a small brass band. The space of the dream has the shape of a circle. A circle of earth with an enigmatic piece of iron in the centre. Before, there was a life inside the cold earth and long journeys to be made along endless roads. Stories of a time before they arrived there, which is transposed to the screen by whatever it is that opens the show.
Origami
Let us build various origami shapes, producing all kinds of forms with coloured paper. We’ll decorate the garden shed and invite our next-door neighbours to join us. monitors Rute Ribeiro and Susana Esteves Pinto
Drawings to take with you on a stroll
Inventing drawings and painting, cutting out shapes and pictures and making collages in small formats, so that we can then take these creations for a walk – on badges that we can place in the most beautiful spots. monitor Daniel Pires
Invented flowers
Let’s go to the places where the plants and trees live and plant recyclable flowers to colour our garden. These are invented flowers that will live all year round wherever we want them to. Flowers made with our own hands, with paints and recyclable materials. monitor Ana Teresa Magalhães
Houses with stories inside them
From the small hole of its nest, a rare bird that lives in the garden invites us to share its stories through the walls of its house. Is it possible for a bird to fill a house with stories? What would its house be like? By building birdhouses, let’s imagine the stories of their lives. monitors Patrícia Maya and Viviana Henriques
Family photographs
There are several kinds of families. Large families and small families, families of friends and acquaintances, with blond hair and dark hair. We shall use paintings and other accessories to photograph the family that we want, more or less invented, more or less improbable. monitor António Rebolo
Stories with many hands
On the walls of the buildings around the garden, we’ll start writing a story. It will be a story written with many hands. Each hand will have a bit of a story to add to the previous one. It will be a story made by everyone and we’ll publish it on the theatre’s website.
Stories to listen to and see
There are stories that we really like. There are stories that seem to be our own. On this afternoon, we shall invite all the children to bring their favourite stories with them. Then we’ll read them to you and to everyone. storytellers Catarina Requeijo and Cláudia Gaiolas
Joana Providência
Suspended stories
Jardim das Estacas 16:00 and 18:00
Stories are part of the cultural identity of any human being. There are characters who feed our creative thoughts and help us to construct a collective imagination. Creating the ephemeral and building the marvellous aspects of a fantastic world, where everything becomes possible. We have all already heard the story of Snow White… we’ve all already told it too… and whoever tells a story… is a storyteller! We have imagined three storytellers, who all jump inside the story at the same time, acting and reacting, flying around and around, taking us to places where a sudden change of direction leads us to other small stories…
What do you tell your shadow?
What are shadows made of? Is it possible to touch them, grab hold of them or offer them to someone as a present? And what stories do they tell us? And what about us? Do we feel different in the shade? Let’s discover where the shadows hide in the garden, draw them on the ground with chalk, and on sheets of paper too. We’ll collect them all together in little pieces, give them colours and transform them into stories with new shadows! Bring a hat! monitors Patricia Maya and Viviana Henriques
Unlikely animals
Taking animals and mythological monsters as our references, we’re going to invent unlikely animals, using collage techniques and a healthy dose of imagination. In order to thank the garden for its kindness, we’re going to populate it with the animals that we’ve created, hanging the drawings in the trees, hiding them in the bushes, placing them on the grass, seating them on benches. monitors Catarina Requeijo and Maria João
Portable kitchen gardens
Creating small plantations from the seeds of fruits, vegetables and other sweet-smelling plants. Inventing flower pots and creating kitchen gardens that we can carry about with us wherever we want. Learning the correct rules for planting, treating and picking these plants and then (who knows?) eating them too. monitor Ana Teresa Magalhães
Designs you can eat
Playing games and creating things out of a sweet-tasting dough. Inventing delicious designs that can be placed in the oven and come out ready to be eaten. Trying all this in an OPEN-AIR garden. monitors Joana da Cruz Chocalhinho and Gonçalo Ladeira
Brass band
15:00, 16:30 and 17:30
An unlikely band composed of wind and brass instruments will start up a conversation with visitors to the garden, asking for love and affection and, in exchange, playing small improvised serenades.
The Story Gatherer
For children aged 10 to 13
A character lives in the Jardim das Estacas for a day. His aim is to get to know the stories of all the youngsters visiting the garden on that day and gathering them all together. To do this, he offers us a story that took place in that neighbourhood, asking his listeners to give him one of their (true) stories in exchange. monitors Aldara Bizarro and João Pinto co-production between Jangada de Pedra and Teatro Maria Matos
Family photographs
There are several kinds of families. Large families and small families, families of friends and acquaintances, with blond hair and dark hair. We shall use paintings and other accessories to photograph the family that we want, more or less invented, more or less improbable. monitor António Rebolo