La Puntual, 20 years of putxinelis

The smallest theater in Barcelona celebrates two decades, making puppets, puppets, Chinese shades and all the objects that are manipulated. Directed by two generations of puppeteers, Eugenio and Néstor Navarro, as well as an intimate exhibition room with a capacity of 50 spectators, La Puntual is a producer of a wide repertoire of shows that has traveled around the world. The anniversary will be celebrated between September 26 and 28 with a show of Titiriteros de Binéfar and an open event in the square.

Twenty years ago, coinciding with La Mercè, Eugenio Navarro He opened the timely by converting his puppet construction workshop into a theater. Located on Carrer de l’Allada-Vermell (Ciutat Vella), the room gradually instituted a stable puppet program that has established itself as a reference space for the family audience and the puppet world.

90% of the offer is aimed at children from 3 years old and their companions. They also host some proposals for older or adult boys and girls – they collaborate with the Nou Barris Rombic Festival – but, as the director explains Néstor Navarro“Our identity is not so much the public we are heading to, as the stage art we represent. The puppet tradition comes from the street and the public is not discriminated against by age.” He considers that “puppets are encased in the family world” and that they have adapted to the public: “We like to see how parents and grandparents go happy.”

In the small dimensions of the stage (2.70 m wide, 3 m deep and 3.20 m high), the timely shelter all kinds of puppet techniques that are part of other genres such as dance, magic or clown always having “the object that is encouraged” as the protagonist. Thus, they have performed in the Puntal from eighteenth-century puppets replicas of medieval puppets to puppets-robot that are manipulated with a distance command. “The black light, the puppets, the puppets … Currently the field has been opened in the visual arts,” says Navarro.

In terms of its own production, the room rescues traditional techniques – such as the glove puppet – and mixes them with a more current language. “We look for the roots but not to reproduce them, but to bring them to the present so that they are interested in the public now. It’s how you keep a tradition alive.”

“You feel breathing the artists. The experience is very cool and the functions are left in the memory”

The little one (Issim) formed them – “There are companies that do not fit for half a meter!” – but at the same time it is the strong point to create the special atmosphere that attracts so much. “You feel breathing the artists. The experience is very cool and the functions are left in the memory. That’s why many internationally renowned companies want to return, even if they come to the box office.”

The punctual will blow for 20 years in a sweet time, as “it is becoming more and more audiences”. “To survive in this world of puppets and the performing arts in Barcelona, ​​being the little ones and being apart, it is quite heroic! The dream is to move on, establishing collaborations and stabilizing the structure to dedicate ourselves more quietly to creation.”

What will we see this fall?

The program will start in September with Pipe, the wonder puppet With Néstor Navarro. Will follow her Caballero sin caballoa medieval satire with Argentinean glove puppet served by Gerardo Capobianco and Beee! The recess of Hilando tíereswhich invites you to choose your own path. The celebration of 20 years will be borne by Titiriteeros de Binéfar and the fun In the mouth of the wolf. In addition, on Saturday 27 in the morning a party will be organized open to everyone With two animation concerts, workshops and other surprises.

Already in October the timely will lift the curtain of the 20th International Putxinellis Festival with two Portuguese companies (Rodopio of Ideias and Rui Sousa), one of English (Lempen Puppet), the glove puppets of Canela Teatro and the premiere of Loopby Eugenio Navarro.

More information here.