Cia Mercè Framis is a company specializing in shadow theater with more than three decades of experience. Since its inception, Mercè Framis has explored the language of light, silhouette and movement to create intimate, sensitive and deeply visual shows.
His work is born from the encounter between different disciplines: visual arts, music, storytelling and pedagogy. Over the years, he has developed his own style where shadows become stage poetry that connects with children, families and adults.
Since 1988, Mercè Framis has built a unique path in the world of visual theatre, working with companies, creating her own shows, participating in national and international festivals and collaborating in educational and television projects. A rich career that combines craftsmanship, education and stage poetry.
Mercè Framis has a long career in puppet theatre and has been part of several companies. In 2001 she began her solo career and created the Cia. Mercè Framis. Shadow theater in which he develops an artistic project focused on shadow theatre, with a personal and poetic perspective.
His work stands out for its great care in visual aesthetics, the result of constant research into light and shadows, as well as for the importance given to dramaturgy, texts and original music, created specifically for each show.
Each production is conceived as a coherent unit, where the stage space, silhouettes, manipulation systems, interpretation and music combine to create an expressive language capable of connecting emotionally with the audience.
Mercè Framis trained as a puppeteer at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona. She has a degree in philosophy from the Ramon Llull University. Master's degree in Analytical Psychology (CG Jung) from the UAB. Art therapist: Master's degree in Art Therapy from the UDG and qualified as an art therapist by the anthroposophic art therapy association Dra Hauska line, Waldorf Pedagogy
In 1992 he created, together with Kerstin Von Posat, the company Framis Von Porat. Together they begin their professional career with the creation of their own shows focused on shadow theater. At the same time, they participate in the construction of puppets and props for various companies and audiovisual productions.
Between 1995 and 2001 he was part of the company Els Aquilinos Teatre, with whom he participated in various shows and creations, as well as in special productions for Port Aventura and audiovisual projects with stop motion for television.
She has participated in numerous national and international festivals and has been awarded several prizes, including those from the International Puppet Show of the Vall d'Albaida. She has also made school theater tours throughout Catalonia and Spain.
In 2001 he began his solo career with the name Cia.Mercè Framis. Shadow Theatre, focusing his work on the Chinese shadow technique
Cia. Mercè Framis · List of shows
Since its creation, the company has presented ten own shows, in addition to several artistic collaborations:
2001 · Compadre Lobo
Text: Mercè Maure · Original music: Xavier Maristany
2004 · When there was no sky or earth
Text: Mercè Maure · Music: Xavier Maristany · Singing: Anna Subirana · Created in collaboration with Montse Bartrana
2007 · The moon moon
Poems and songs · Adaptation of traditional themes: Joan Saura · Singing: Anna Subirana
2010 · Snail syrup
Text: Jordi Teixidor · Original music and adaptation of traditional themes: Joan Saura · Created in collaboration with Olga Olveira
2013 · The Little Circus / El Petit Circ
Text: Jordi Teixidor · Adaptation of traditional themes from the Anglo-Saxon repertoire: Manel Valls · Created in collaboration with Marga Carbonell
2016 · At the shadow of the nativity
Fragments of the Poem of the Nativity Scene by Joan Alavedra · Traditional Christmas carols from Catalonia and Venezuela · Mercè Framis, accompanied by four: Sarina Guerra (singer)
2017 · Donkey Skin
Tale by Charles Perrault · Created in collaboration with Sarina Guerra · Interpretation: Mercè Framis and Sarina Guerra, accompanied by four
2019 · Stardust or how Nawal decided to be born
Text: Mercè Framis · Original music: Manel Valls · Direction: María Castillo Pinos · With the collaboration of Eudald Ferré
2022 · At the shadow of the nativity (new version)
Fragments of the Nativity Scene Poem by Joan Alavedra · Catalan Christmas Carols · Musical interpretation: Anna Amigó (harp) and Raül Poblet (tenor)
2023 · Traveling exhibition: Donkey Skin. Shadow theatre, a fairy tale
Scenic material and original designs for the show based on the tale by Charles Perrault · Design and construction: Mercè Framis
Other collaborative projects:
Mercè Framis has taught courses shadow play aimed at both education professionals and puppet theatre professionals. Their teaching includes training for nursery school teachers and teachers of Educational Sciences, as well as for professionals in the performing arts sector.
He has collaborated with several institutions and centers, including:
“Rarely can the value of a theatrical work be appreciated as well as in Mercè Framis' shadow plays, which acutely mix textual, plastic and musical ingredients, in order to embody the beauty of a thought capable of speaking to us about human beings, with delicacy, generosity and infinite lucidity.
Through light, the movement of colors, the harmony of lines, his works are a poetic and symbolic response to the existential, ethnic and social questions that both adults and children ask themselves: eternal questions that here open windows to immense horizons where the entire history of the world appears in chiaroscuro: our individual and collective identities, our tales, legends and mythologies in which the imaginary is presented to us as popular teaching.
Mercè Framis' long professional career, her rich experience in multidisciplinary work, make this sensitive and ingenious personality an artist who in our country is, without a doubt, a brilliant reference in the arts of puppetry and shadows."”
Maryse Badiou”
Explore the journey of the Mercè Framis Company that shows the evolution of our stage language.
If you are interested in hiring a shadow theater show, organizing a workshop or receiving more information about our work, we will be happy to assist you.
