Munganga celebrates 25 years with new performance

26 April 2011

"Orixás and the treasure chest of origin"

With the new performance “Orixás and the treasure chest of origin” Teatro Munganga takes its young public by the hand in order to look for our origin, our own identity together. The Brazilians artistic director of Teatro Munganga, Carlos Lagoeiro, has taken the initiative for this magical new performance. It is his wish to inspire children and to stimulate their interest into their roots and the history of their family. Lagoeiro travelled back to his own home country for research. He ended up in the miraculous world of the Orixás, gods from the African mythology. Inspired through his experiences, Lagoeiro wrote together with the Brazilian director and theatre maker Carlos Carvalho the script for a colourful, thrilling performance:”Orixás and the treasure chest of origin”. A performance for everyone from 7 years.

The story

His name is João. He is a black boy of Brazilian origin, who has been adopted as a baby through a Dutch couple. João is a boy as many others. His parents are the owners of a theatre group with the name “Heaven and Earth”. João has never been busy with his Afro – Brazilian origin until the day that his parents have been giving him a treasure chest. With this treasure chest João is going back to Olinda, a town in the midlands of Brazil. During his journey our character will take the public to the fantastic world of the Orixás. This journey will bring João’s life totally upside down. This piece is an incitement for the young spectator to look himself curiously for the story of his own ancestors.

Background and history
In order to create “Orixás and the treasure chest of origin”, director Carlos Lagoeiro travelled to Brazil, where he is working with domestic artists. In Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Olinda en Recife Lagoeiro visited a huge number of “terreiros” (locations, where still rituals are being performed in the honour of the Orixás.). He researched the power of the Candomblé, the religion of the Orixás.

The Candomblé and the whole culture of the Orixás where brought to Brazil through the enormous slave trade. Nearly four centuries around 8 millions of African slaves have been arriving to this South American country. Until recently the Candomblé has been seen as sort of “Black Magic”. This religion of the Orixás is only a very small part of the big influence which the Africans have been exerting on the Brazilian culture. Other cultural expressions of African origin, which have had even more influence on the Brazilian culture, are e.g. samba, capoeira, jongo, coco, maracatu and feijoada.

Orixás: a theatre performance about stories from the Afro-Braziliaansmythology. A familyperformance for everybody as of 7 years old.
Premiere: Sunday 2 october 2011,Tropentheater Amsterdam

Read more about the background, history, music, decor and creation of Orixas!