Maria on the High Wire

“Maria, Marie you have to go alone now,
No one can tell what’s in your heart,
Your soul is so opressed by heavy stones,
How can you ever bear your part.
But one day the stones will lift again, oh,
Your courage will lead you out of this hell,
And life will sing you a new refrain, oh,
Maria, Maria all will be well.“

Maria has never gone to school. Maria comes from the circus. Maria can dance on the tightrope.

Something terrible has happened, too terrible to remember. Maria has forgotten about everything that has happened in the ten years of her life.

She is brought to the city, to stay with her rich grandmother Dona Maria Cecilia Mendonca de Melo. Hour after hour Maria looks out of the window of her new room into the courtyard. So many windows! But one is special: It has a round arch and is open. How would it be to tighten a rope? And to stroll over there, high up, with the chirping swallows? Dreaming she begins to walk.

Behind the window – many doors, each in a different colour. Sounds… Voices… Should she open the doors? The yellow? The blue? The white? Only the red door stays closed. What is waiting behind the red door?

Maria on the high wire: A play with puppets and people, in the circus, in the grandmother’s living room and in the shadowy pictures of memory, with a lot of music, a touch of Brazil and the things that make life worth living.

For everyone from 8 years up. Based on the novel by Lygia Bojunga Nunes.