You are standing in front of a gigantic wall. Nobody knows what is on the other side. A sign reads: Entry forbidden to anyone who is not constantly amazed.
Suppose you accidentally step on the Jagged Stones. A Winged Gramophone offers you a ride. You stumble across the Naked Truth. An Enchanted Tree with claws for branches begs you to turn it back into a human being. In a Scorching Desert you have to sacrifice a finger in exchange for a swig… What do you do?
Aventuras is an interactive labyrinth in which the participants face a succession of challenging choices. A journey through bizarre worlds that tests your courage to the full. An encounter with elusive creatures that encourage you to stay the course. Most importantly, don’t forget your passport!
Laika and Prado – Associação Cultural are joining forces to make a mobile, sensory installation inspired by fantastic images and texts from Aventuras de João sem Medo by the Portuguese author José Gomes Ferreira. There will be both a Dutch and a Portuguese version of Aventuras.
Image: © Sarah Verhoeven & Thomas De Brabanter
“(…) Portuguese writer and theatre-maker Patricia Portela adapted the Portuguese literary classic Aventuras de João Sem Medo, or The Adventures of John Without Fear by author José Gomes Ferreira. (…) That and the observation that political fear reigns in Europe and other parts of the world prompts Patricia Portela to react, to fight injustice, isolation and indifference. The Portuguese character João Sem Medo is, unlike the Flemish historical Jan zonder Vrees, a purely fictional character that aims to stimulate the imagination, and to incite rebellion.
(…) In their theatre version – performed in both Dutch and Portuguese – De Bie and Portela introduce us to the bizarre worlds John without Fear visits. (…) a magnified mirror of our own little world.(…)
Wisdom and contradictions are fired at us, questions and answers are presented with dilemmas. Do we want to tell, let alone hear, the naked truth? Do we want to live in a grizzled world, in an upside-down world where happiness is crying out loud? Should we detach ourselves? From what? From whom? What is ‘fantasy’? What is ‘real’?
In the absurdist and image-rich setting, all that does come across.
After the pleasant introduction to these agreeably disturbed inner worlds, we end up back in the outer world through the wall. It looks now more disturbed than ever.”
https://www.theaterkrant.nl/recensie/aventuras-9/laika-prado-associacao-cultural/?fbclid=IwAR2skho66qEO7o1qUQpeh8zsOMKgOhG7Zn_-dshCnwYxiRiWwyuK3RSCVeY
“Aventuras” is surprising, exciting, interactive, and stimulates all senses leaving us curious.
We enter an extraordinary world and we partiste in a performance full of thoughts, weirdness, dilemas and art. we meet the Jans, a man without a head (yes, because without a head we are happier, we don’t have unpleasant thoughts! ahah, that is so true, the biting shoes, Mrs Naked Truth or Mrs Pain.
Highly recommended (from 9 to 109 years old, not for younger children so it can be experienced at the fullest)”
https://www.facebook.com/corinne.jansen/posts/pfbid0LFqGbvi3WeMZcQtmsBrA8RZgtZFA5avwid2G1NViAJdGDSr8FYgkz2dG8imo56Fhl