The 26th Macao Arts Festival (MAF), organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), proceeds this weekend with one of the most anticipated shows of the event, the play in Patuá Macao’s Got Talent by Dóci Papiaçám di Macau Drama Group, Saturday and Sunday, at 7:30pm at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium. The plot unfolds in today’s Macao, a city in which the production of talents is a priority, in order to contribute to the intellectual and technical development of our city. Theatre in Patuá was inscribed on the List of Macao S.A.R. Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2012, and the dialect has been identified as a critically endangered language by UNESCO.
Also on 23 and 24 May (Saturday and Sunday), at 8pm (23/5) and 3pm (24/5), the MAF presents Out of Context – for Pina, by Les ballets C de la B (Belgium), at the Macao Cultural Centre Small Auditorium. In this dance performance, director Alain Platel continues his search for a language of movement connected to the unconscious, the arbitrary, the uncontrolled. As a former special-needs educator working with children with motor and multiple disabilities, Alain Platel understands deformities and muscle impediments. Rather than censuring, he celebrates the beauty that the malformed and the misshapen have wrung, the laid-bare crux of human emotion expressed through movements and gestures. An award-winning homage to his close friend, the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, in Out of Context – for Pina, Platel attempts to devise a new physical language, from which, out of chaos, we can decipher rational undertones and find peace.
From 23 to 25 May (Saturday to Monday), at 3pm and 5pm, it’s the turn of Transports Exceptionnels, by Beau Geste (France), to take the stage of the Praça do Lago Sai Van. An unexpected duo between a dancer and an excavator, a poetic twenty-minute dialogue between a man and a huge machine, between iron and flesh, on opera music. The machine almost has human movements and is in harmony with the choreography of the dancer. The metaphor is legible; it’s a matter of accepting that the world is under construction, in motion for the worth and the better.
Between 28 and 31 May (Thursday to Sunday), from 6:30pm to 9pm, the Outdoor Performing Arts Showcase takes the stage of the Largo do Pagode da Barra, aiming to bring the arts closer to the public. It features artists and traditions from home and abroad, providing an ample variety of artistic performances for everyone to enjoy! For four consecutive evenings, local and foreign artists and groups offer a series of culturally rich and entertaining performances such as Chizhou Nuo opera from Anhui Province, songs and dances from Xinjiang Province, shadow theatre from Turkey, Awantika Kathak dance from India, among others.
In case of adverse weather conditions, outdoor performances may be delayed or cancelled by the Organization, to be decided according to the situation. All changes and new arrangements will be announced at the performance venues. For more information, please visit the website of the Cultural Affairs Bureau www.icm.gov.mo or the Macao Arts Festival official Facebook page.
The 26th Macao Arts Festival programme information is available at www.icm.gov.mo/fam and ticket reservations can be made through tel. no. 28555555.