Dialog Festival

The Overcoat

author: Nikolai Gogol, adaptation: Paola Giannini, director: Paola Giannini, Aline Kuppenheim, set and costume design: Aline Kuppenheim, music: Felipe Hurtado, Rolando Alvarez, puppets and props: Teatro Milagros, lighting: Rodrigo Barnao, premiere: April 2007

cast: Paula García, Loreto Moya, Aline Kuppenheim, Paola Giannini

“We wanted to create a production that would be a poetic reality in miniature. We wanted the audience to join us on a journey leading to the discovery of the most deeply hidden emotions, the forgotten feeling of gentleness. We wanted to meet children and adults at a point where everything was the same.”

Teatro Milagros

The Overcoat only seems to be a small production. Its preparation, however – owing to the company’s decision to make all elements themselves from scratch – took two years of painstaking work. Dedicated to children over eight and to adults, The Overcoat is presented with such a high level of artistry and creative workmanship that we cannot but greatly admire the results. This wonderfully synthetic adaptation surprises when it comes not only to the text but also to the language it uses. Special effects and animated projections support this kind-hearted and delicate production that goes deep into the human soul, using a simple language. The subject is always in fashion, because every human being desires his or her own overcoat.

“It’s a jewel you cannot miss. A strong applause closes each performance of The Overcoat, a staging prepared with the precision of a artful goldsmith that is able to enrapture both grown-ups and children. Many puppets are involved in the production, but without any doubt the most impressive is the protagonist, Akakiy Akakievich Kamashkin. This tall, thin, large-nosed puppet makes you feel a human being is looking at you. His delicate movements make us forget that there are actors manipulating him. The troupe conveys universal values such as tolerance, democracy and justice. They also tell us that there is a chance for achieving a better world.”

Marietta Santi, La Hora

Teatro Milagros, a “miniature theatre for audiences of all ages”, was established in 2005 in an attempt to build a place where drama, design, directing as well as crafts could meet. The Overcoat was the first production of the company’s four women members. Enchanted with Gogol’s work, Paola Giannini, Aline Kuppenheim, Paula García and Loreto Moya decided that a puppet would be the main protagonist of their first production. At the moment, members of the company are working on their second production, Walking the Tightrope by Mike Kenny.