This book accompanies the exhibition Small Theatre of the World dedicated to Luis Miguel Cintra, a leading figure in Portuguese theatre and cinema. Centred on the remarkable collection of sculptural figures he has gathered over the years in his home, the book unveils a deeply personal world where art, memory and theatre intersect. More than a mere assortment of objects, it forms a true domestic scenography, in which the stage director lives among hundreds of figures that acquire the status of silent characters, arranged according to a dramaturgical logic. An intimate theatre, suspended between the visible and the imagined, and an original reflection on the act of staging, the ways of seeing and showing, and the enduring presence of theatre as a way of life.

More than a conventional catalogue, this publication is a sensitive testimony to the life and art of Luis Miguel Cintra, weaving together memories, performances and cinema — with particular emphasis on his long-standing collaboration with Manoel de Oliveira. It brings together newly commissioned essays by Paulo Raposo, Luis Miguel Cintra and Regina Guimarães, a wide-ranging conversation led by António Preto, and especially commissioned photographs by André Cepeda, capturing with great subtlety this rich and singular universe.