TODA VÍA TEATRO
A CERCA DE LA ESTRATEGIA MÁS INGENIOSA PARA AHORRARSE LA
PENOSA TAREA DE VIVIR (CONCERNING THE MOST INGENIOUS WAY
OF AVOIDING THE ARDUOUS TASK OF LIFE) by Paula Giusti
Directed by: Paula Giusti.
Assistant director: Sebastien Brottet-Michel. Featuring:
Daniela Villalba, Daniel Cabot, Facundo Vega Ancheta,
Pablo Delgado and Pablo Salas. Set, lighting and costume
design: Toda Vía Teatro. Music: Jean Jacques Lemêtre.
Spanish Premiere.
www.toda-via-teatro.com.ar
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Teatro Pradillo
Tel: 91 416 90 11.
www.teatropradillo.com
18th, 19th and 20th of October at 20.30.
La Cabrera.
Centro Comarcal de Humanidades Cardenal Gonzaga
Sierra Norte
Tel. 91 868 95 30
21st of October at 20:00.
“An ironic intrigue in which real and fictitious
characters equally assume their own existence”. This is
how the author and director Paula Giusti defines this
work which seeks to be an introduction to the life and
work of Fernando Pessoa, the most important poet of the
20th Century. When Pessoa is admitted to hospital, there
are certain signs that this might be the end. Awaiting
his death, the Portuguese writer typically begins to
blend dream and reality. Pessoa dies and the bed is
empty. An old coat lies among the sheets where once his
body was. An old coat and a question: Who was this man?
Madrid ‘s theatre going public now have the chance to
see “Acerca de la Estrategia Más Ingeniosa Para
Ahorrarse la Penosa Tarea de Vivir”, the first project
by the Argentinean theatre company Toda Vía Teatro. The
story combines dream and reality, humour and tragedy,
music and silence, going ever deeper into the most
suggestive elements of Pessoa’s work: the creation of
fictitious personalities. The others who live within
Pessoa and who are, at the same time, Pessoa himself,
reveal themselves on stage through a clever polyphonic
device. The enveloping voice of the narrator and actress
Daniela Villalba acts as a guide for the spectator,
accompanying them on the journey where all the
characters are inter-related in order to come together
on the arduous task of life.
TEATRO MERIDIONAL
CóMO SER LEONARDO (BEING LEONARDO)
Author: Julio Salvatierra. Stage direction: Álvaro
Lavín. Original music and musical direction: Óscar Sánchez
Zafra. Featuring: Álvaro Lavín, Óscar Sánchez Zafra,
Marina Szerezevsky and Paloma Vidal and Pepa Zaragoza.
Costume design: Pepe Uría. World premiere.
www.teatromeridional.com
Theatres, dates and times
Becerril de la Sierra. Sala Real. 12th of October.
Alcalá de Henares. Teatro Salón Cervantes.
13th, 14th and 15th of October.
Mejorada del Campo. Teatro Casa de Cultura.
21st of October
San Martín de la Vega. Centro Cívico Cultural.
28th of October
Collado Villalba. Teatro Casa de la Cultura.
4th of November
Tres Cantos. Teatro Municipal. 5th of November
León Arias, an old Spanish Republican librarian and
admirer of Leonardo da Vinci, is trying to finish his
life's work before he dies – his personal interpretation
of the Florentine master. His character fascinates the
old man, although he can’t help but suspect that, like
all idols, he had feet of clay. The chapters of this
book pass before our eyes, with historical reality
merging into the dreams of this dreamer of Leonardos,
which are none other than those of a dying man who wants
to believe, understand, improve and leave behind his
mark. Accompanying him on this journey are his wife, his
daughter and his best friend, with whom he has shared
both adventures and exile. All these characters also
embody Da Vinci’s loved ones in the play's imaginary
scenes, and ensure that Leonardo, like the old
librarian, leave a deep emotional impact on those they
leave behind. It also might be possible, as Da Vinci
said, that all human thought is born in feeling. The
untiring urge to investigate, the possibility of manned
flight, music, Latin, the service one must give to one’s
principles, palace festivities, anatomy, war, optics,
mathematics and, of course, painting were Leonardo’s
main concerns, and this play deals with all of them.
With life, with work, with myth. This is a
representation which is based as much on the word as it
is on the image, with an artistic conception of the
stage which the Teatro Meridional is exploring for the
first time.
UR TEATRO
EL CHICO DE LA ÚLTIMA FILA (THE BOY IN THE BACK ROW) by
Juan Mayorga
Directed by: Helena Pimenta. Featuring: Ramón Barea,
Carlos Jiménez Alfaro, Luisa Pazos, José Tomé, Ignacio
Jiménez and Natalie Pinot. Set and costume design: José
Tomé and Pedro Galván. Lighting: Miguel Ángel Camacho.
Sound: Eduardo Vasco. World premiere.
Theatres, dates and times
S. Lorenzo de El Escorial.
Real Coliseo de Carlos III.
Tel. 91 890 44 11.
28th and 29th of October. 28th at 20:00 and 29th at 19:00.
Madrid. Círculo de Bellas Artes, Teatro Fernando de
Rojas.
Tel. 91 360 54 00.
www.circulobellasartes.com
3rd, 4th and 5th of November.
3rd and 4th at 20:00 and 5th at 19:00.
A language and literature teacher and a routine task –
correcting an essay entitled “Last Weekend”. His
students’ efforts are increasingly disappointing until
he gets to one by a quiet boy who sits at the back of
the class. After re-reading it a few times in order to
make sure that it was not just a figment of his
imagination, he enters into a relationship with its
author, intense yet dangerous, both for two concerned
and for those around them. “El chico de la última fila”
talks of masters and pupils, about people who have seen
too much and those who are still learning to see. This
is a play about the pleasure to be had in peering into
other people’s lives and the risks inherent in confusing
life and literature. Some people prefer to sit in the
back row and be able to watch the others. Juan Mayorga
is one of the truly outstanding figures in the current
theatrical scene. He has worked on a number of drama
publications and won a number of prestigious awards,
including the Calderón de la Barca Prize. His recent
projects have involved the Animalario theatre company,
with performances such as “Las Últimas Palabras de
Copito de Nieve” (Snowflake’s Last Words) and “Hamelin”,
which received the National Theatre Award in 2005.
Mayorga is also a teacher of Drama and the History of
Thought and Sociology at the Real Escuela Superior de
Arte Dramático (RESAD), Spain’s Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts.
El Mágico Prodigioso S.L.
EL MÁGICO PRODIGIOSO (THE PRODIGIOUS MAGICIAN) by Calderón
de la Barca
Directed by: Juan Carlos Pérez de la Fuente. Adapted
by: Daniel Pérez Fernández. Set design: Ana Garay.
Featuring: Carmen Conesa, Jacobo Dicenta, Beatriz
Argüello, Manuel Aguilar, Rodrigo Poisón, Albert Roca,
Alejandra Caparrós and Xabier Elorriaga.
Theatres, dates and times
San Sebastián de los Reyes.
Teatro Auditorio Municipal Adolfo Marsillach.
21st of October.
Majadahonda. Casa de la Cultura Carmen Conde.
28th of October.
Torrelodones. Teatro Bulevar.
4th of November.
Both “El Mágico Prodigioso” and “Faust” have as there
common starting point the “dark origin of the tragedy of
knowledge which, in a certain way, is also a lust to
know”. Both works have expressed and sought to find
metaphors for truth and beauty. Whilst Goethe expressed
this in a secular, optimistic fashion, Calderón
transmits the impossibility that existed at his time of
combining the beauty of the divine with human passions.
This is the tragedy of Calderón’s heroes: the
confrontation between abstract concepts and human
existence, or the dichotomy between knowing and feeling.
The subject of free will is broached in this play when
the choice has to be made between a way of life or a
manner of conduct. The fictitious world that is
recreated here, the Antioquia of the Roman Empire, in
which the Christian faith is illegal, corresponds to the
notions of empire in Calderón's time. Here we see the
struggle for supremacy between social and political
values on the one hand, and intellectual and spiritual
values on the other. Calderón wrote “El Mágico
Prodigioso” for the festival of Corpus Christi in the
town of Yepes, near Toledo, in 1637. He was 37 years old
and had already written his most important dramatic work
- “La Vida es Sueño” (Life is But a Dream”), “La Dama
Duende” (The Phantom Lady) and “El Médico de Su Honra”
(The Surgeon of Honour), among others. This piece
achieved international renown due in great part to the
apology that he makes in it of German Romanticism.
TEATR NOWY
FAUST by Goethe
Country: Poland. Language: Polish without Spanish
subtitles. Approx. running time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
(without intermission)
Direction and set design: Janusz Wisniewski. Music:
Jerzy Satanowski. Costume design: Irena Bieganska.
Choreography: Emil Wesolowski. Featuring: Witold Debicki,
Miroslaw Kropielnicki, Mariusz Puchalski and Edyta
Lukaszewska, among others. Spanish Premiere.
www.teatrnowy.pl
Theatres, dates and times Madrid. Teatro Español
18, 19, 20 and 21 of October at 20.00
The owner of an abandoned workshop, Goethe’s own
character is revealed before the public through the
story of Faust: his pact with the devil, his tragic love
for Margaret, his agony in his search for truth, his
illumination and, finally, his death. Spectators become
witnesses to the struggle between Lent and Carnival, in
which we see a grotesque canvas of powerful imagery:
goose-stepping dictators, cornet playing clowns,
haggard, wizened old lovers. Set in a godless world
after the crucifixion of Christ yet before his
resurrection, Wisniewski’s “Faust” offers a vision of a
Europe obsessed by its own greed. The devil walks the
Earth, and soon Faust will be dancing to the sound of
his music in exchange for the chance to recuperate his
youth, beauty, sensual pleasures, material wealth and
worldly power. The imagery in this production is
stunning, with choreography and special effects in which
flashes of golden light and fire criss-cross the stage
as the tension between the profane and the sacred is
racked up. The owner of the workshop, the director,
makes his characters run “through heaven, across the
face of the Earth, then down to hell itself”. Considered
by critics to be a unique, absorbing vision which
“overcomes the barriers of language, which cannot be
described but has to be seen”, Wisniewski’s “Faust” has
received, among other awards the Herald Angels at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005.
COMPAÑÍA DE COMEDIAS DE MANUEL DE BLAS
FUNCIÓN BECKETT based on texts by Samuel Beckett
Translation: Jenaro Talens. Directed by: María Ruiz.
Featuring: Jeannine Mestre, Manuel de Blas, Carlos Velasco
and Morgan Blasco. Set design: Amadeo Lemus and Carmen
Calvo. Costume design: Amadeo Lemus / “Il Griffone”. World
premiere
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Círculo de Bellas Artes.
Tel. 91 360 54 00.
www.circulobellasartes.com
31st of October and 1st of November at 20:00
San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
Real Coliseo de Carlos III.
Tel. 91 890 44 11.
21st and 22nd of October. 21st at 20:00 and 22nd at 19:00
An introduction to the work of the Irish author through
three one act pieces which cover a period of more than
twenty years. “Krapp’s Last Tape”, one of his first
pieces, is centred on a tape recording an old man has
been making throughout his life, the symbol of the
ephemeral nature of the human condition and identity,
two of Beckett’s obsessions. “Nana” is a daring
synthesis of the life of a woman who is paralysed but
whose soul is full of emotion, whilst “Rough for Theatre
II” presents us with three characters, two of whom
discuss the third and the pros and cons of whether or
not he should commit suicide by jumping out of a window.
All three pieces demonstrate the acidic humour which
nevertheless is not without its poetry which is typical
of the Theatre of the Absurd, of which Beckett was one
of the prime movers. This production celebrates the
centenary of the birth of one of Ireland’s finest
playwrights, poets and novelists, whose written output
in both English and French made him one of the most
influential figures in the theatre of the second half of
the twentieth century. Beckett gave a voice to the
voiceless, to old age, illness and existential angst,
subjects which realist writers from the previous century
had only been able to deal with from the outside looking
in - the narrator as spectator
Teatro Camino
INFAMANTE ELECTRA by Benjamín Galemiri
Madrid. Sala Cuarta Pared.
Tel. 91 517 23 17.
www.cuartapared.es
17th, 18th, 19th and 20th of October at 21:00.
“Infamante Electra” tells the story of Joshua Halevi, a
former Chilean senator who has been disgraced by
repeated accusations of a series of crimes and tax
offences. This once honourable member, who once stood at
the forefront of the fight against the dictatorship as
well as being something of a heartthrob, now has to face
up to rejection of all those with whom he once shared
power. Like some sort of impure, dense tragedy, only his
daughter, a brilliant lawyer, will defend him. She is
prepared to counter and mitigate the accusations against
him, to confront the constant attacks from the media and
pass her own sentence on her (once) blasé, indifferent
father. Characters interact in a single stage space, in
which worlds as diverse as the Jewish faith, Chile’s
particular sense of cunning and the whole concept of a
circus all come together. From “El Escaparate” (“The
Shop Window”), written in 1977, to “Los Desastres del
Amor” (“The Disasters of Love”), from 2003, via 1992’s
“El Coordinador” (The Coordinator), Benjamín Galemiri,
often regarded as Chile’s playwright of the transition
to democracy, has always shown an outstanding control
over his dramatic production which has received the
acclaim of both critics and the general public. Rather
than a voice of protest, he sees himself as an onlooker
who benefits from a certain sense of distance: “It’s
more than that. I believe in paradise. All that is
profane and all that is sacred are inextricable bound
together in today’s society”, in Galemiri’s words.
“Infamante Electra” is a co-production with Alstom
Chile, Teatro Camino and the Instituto Chileno Francés".
La Comédie-Française LE TARTUFFE ou l’Imposteur by Molière
Country: France. Language: French with Spanish
subtitles. Approx. running time: 2 hours and 55 minutes
(with intermission)
Director: Marcel Bozonnet. Featuring: Gerard Giroudon,
Véronique, Igor Tyczka, Eric Génovèse, Clotilde de Bayser,
Bakary Sangaré, Daniel Znyk, Clément Hervieu-Léger, Thomas
Blanchard, Camilla Schnebelen, Catherine Corringer and
Anatoliy Pereverzev. Set design: Daniel Jeanneteau.
Costume design: Renato Bianchi. Lighting: Dominique
Bruguière. Spanish Premiere.
www.comedie-francaise.fr
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Real Escuela Superior
de Arte Dramático (RESAD)
28th, 29th and 31st of October. 1st of November
28th, 31st and 1st at 20:00.
29th of October at 19:00.
Molière set out to create a secular space with this
work. Religion does not have an exclusive claim to hold
the truth. This premise establishes “Tartuffe” as the
first truly modern work of literature, according to the
director of La Comédie, Marcel Bozonnet. And yet we must
ask, what did people see in Tartuffe that set so many
against it in a seventeenth century France which at that
time was far from inquisitorial? The answer, of course,
lies in the denouncement of the moral hypocrisy of the
falsely devout; those who used the name of God in their
own interests whilst seeking judge and condemn the
morals of others. A timeless, universal theme indeed.
The plot of this comedy is simplicity itself: Two young
people who are in love and want to get married. A father
who is against the union and decides to set up another
wedding. A number of more “sensible” characters who see
to it that love triumphs in the end. The story revolves
around the eponymous Tartuffe, about whom all the other
characters move: the mother, Elmira and her brother
Cleantes, the children, Damis and Mariana, who is in
love with Valerio; Orgon and Madame Pernelle. Bozonnet
has given the role of Orgon to Bakary Sangaré, an actor
discovered by Peter Brook, due to his enormous presence
and capacity for expression on stage.
SEGUNDO VIENTO
LLUVIA EN EL RAVAL (RAIN IN EL RAVAL) by Pau Miró
Country: Argentina. Language: Spanish Approx. running
time: 1 hour and 25 minutes (without intermission)
Directed by: Mario Vedoya. Featuring: Florencia Saraví
Medina, Martín V and Mario Vedoya.
Stage and costume design: Emilio Valenzuela. Lighting
design: Rafa Echeverz. Original music and sound: Albert
Llanas. World premiere.
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Sala Cuarta Pared.
Tel. 91 517 23 17.
www.cuartapared.es
12th, 13th and 14th of October at 21:00
Madrid. C. C. Paco Rabal-Palomeras Bajas.
Tel. 91 507 97 40.
21st of October at 20:00.
S. Lorenzo de El Escorial. Real Coliseo de Carlos III.
Tel. 91 890 44 11.
4th and 5th of November.
November 4th at 20:00 and November 5th at 19:00.
This piece depicts the empty, desolate life its
characters lead - outsiders looking for company and
affection, whatever the price might be. These are the
dark occupants of our cities, spectators perplexed by
the progress which is apparently within easy reach but
in practice is light years away. They hide away, taking
refuge in a miserable bed-sit whose window opens out
onto the city with all its noise, light and shadow. We
are in summer, and the heat and humidity impregnate
everything. Three characters and one neighbourhood: a
prostitute who wants to find a new job because she has
discovered that another way of life is possible. She is
at the apex of a triangle completed by two men. One is
lazy, apathetic; living both with her and off her, the
other is her favourite client: a poet who works in a
bookshop; a considerate man who shows her special
affection. Both of them, with their differing
strategies, prevent her from ever escaping the clutches
of prostitution. For the director and actor Mario
Vedoya, Barcelona and Madrid might be two very different
cities, but El Raval in Barcelona is just like Lavapiés
in Madrid, San Telmo in Buenos Aires or La Candelaria en
Bogota, a semi-marginal neighbourhood, both bohemian and
cosmopolitan, where progress, post-modernity and misery
co-exist.
MABOU MINES DollHouse, based on Ibsen’s “A Dolls
House”
Country: USA. Language: English with
Spanish subtitles. Approx. running time: 2 hours 30
minutes (with intermission)
Adapted and directed by: Lee Breuer. Set design:
Narelle Sissons. Costume design: Megane George. Featuring:
Maude Mitchell, Mark Povinelli, Ricardo Gil, Kristopher
Medina, Honora Fergusson Neumann and Margaret Lancaster.
Spanish Premiere.
www.maboumines.org
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Teatro Español.
Tel. 91 360 14 80.
www.esmadrid.com/teatroespanol
25th, 26th,27th 28th and 29th of October.
25th, 26th, 27th and 28th at 20:00. 29th at 18:00.
“MABOU MINES DollHouse” transforms Ibsen’s bourgeois
tragedy into high comedy with more than a hint of
cutting political satire. This is the fifth such
“deconstruction” of a literary classic, adapted and
directed by Lee Breuer – one of the company’s founder
members - within a series of pieces which also includes
work by Shakespeare and Beckett. It could be argued that
this version of “A Dolls House” transforms Ibsen’s
nineteenth century feminism into an equation of power
and scale. Helmer, Rank and Krogstad are played by
actors who are between 120 and 150 centimetres tall.
Nora and Kristine stand somewhat higher, whilst Helene,
the servant girl, is over 1 metre 80. Nothing represents
Ibsen’s patriarchy clearer than the image of these short
men given order to women who are almost twice as tall as
they are. The whole performance is set in the children’s
bedroom, where Nora has given a dolls house as a
Christmas present to her “little one”, her sons - a
dolls house they can enter and play in, decorated with
period furniture. Eve Beglarian’s music, - based on
Edvard Grieg’s piano works – accompanies each scene as
if this was a silent film, whilst the choreography
deconstructs the melodramatic posturing and synthesises
it through dance.
Teatro de los Manantiales and Noname Radar-Rafa
Linares
MAKBET based on “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare
Author: Antonio de Paco. Set design and directed by:
Ximo Flores. Featuring: R. Linares, J. Horno, P. Miralles
and C. Núñez. Music: Orquesta Heroína. Musicians: L.
Albadalejo, F. Fernández, P. Fernández and R. Pérez.
Lighting: Ximo Rojo. Madrid premiere.
www.teatrodelosmanantiales.com Theatres, dates and times
Madrid Sala Cuarta Pared.
Tel. 91 517 23 17.
www.cuartapared.es
1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th of November at 21:00
A story of crime, witchcraft and dementia, a hardcore
group playing live, 650 kilos of salt, a fish tank
containing eels and a subversive aesthetic are just some
of the components of this piece, inspired by
Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. This is a version which, unlike
its predecessors, is based on a modern day discourse,
bringing concepts such as horror, crime, insomnia and
guilt right up to date. It recreates a world of discord
and moral confusion, centred on the irreversible
degradation of a man driven by ambition and a lust for
power. The Shakespearian anti-hero, appears here,
however, as a simple assassin, within a space which
projects the origins of horror within the context of
current events, such as the ferocious reaction to
immigration and the wars being waged in the interests of
oil. “Makbet” is a multi-disciplinary spectacle which
seeks to explore physical movement through theatre,
dance, video art, video clips and TV advertising. The
nudity, transvestism and powerful imagery upon which the
production is based also contain reflection and social
criticism, in an attempt to show the limits of a modern,
liberal society. This is the first part of what the
director claims will become a classic tetralogy.
Directed by: Calixto Bieito. Assistant director: Josep
Galindo. Translators: Joan Sellent and Anne-Lise Cloetta.
Featuring: Joel Joan, Roser Camí, Carles Canut, Mingo
Ràfols, Miquel Gelabert, Boris Ruiz , Amparo Moreno,
Victòria Pagès... Set design: Alfons Flores. Lighting
design: Xavi Clot. Madrid premiere.
www.teatreromea.com
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Teatro Albéniz.
Tel. 91 531 83 11.
www.madrid.org/clas_artes
27th and 28th of October.
27th and 28th at 20:30
Peer Gynt is an outrageous charlatan from the provinces
who goes on a journey in order to discover himself and
find out who he really is. He ends up returning home,
discovering that his egotism is not the answer. Ibsen
throws an acidic sideways glance at the small-mindedness
of small communities, whilst at the same time reflecting
on the human struggle with the bonds that tie us all –
the Judeo-Christian culture we have inherited – and our
most deeply hidden passions and selfishness which come
to the surface as we attempt to escape from the hell of
our most savage instincts. The play was written without
any clear intent on the part of its author to see it on
stage, a factor which gave Ibsen greater freedom in
scratching beneath the surface of questions such as the
nature of time and space of reality and fantasy of the
conscious and the unconscious. For Calixto Bieito, the
director of this production, Peer’s life in the final
hour of the play is reflected in a distorted mirror. The
wedding scene and the appearance of the trolls seem more
like the dream of a drunken teenager than a debate
between lust and conscience. “Given the immensity of the
piece, with its forty scenes and more than a hundred
characters, one has no other alternative than to turn to
imagination and artistic freedom. It is no accident that
these are two of the key subject areas of the play”.
“Peer Gynt” is an international co-production with the
Teatre Romea, the Bergen International Festival, the
30th Festival de Barcelona Grec and the Viladecans Town
Council.
Teatre Romea
PLATAFORMA (PLATFORM) by Michel Houellebecq
Country: Spain (Catalonia). Language: Spanish
Dramatist: Calixto Bieito and Marc Rosich. Directed by:
Calixto Bieito. Featuring: Juan Echanove, Marta Domingo,
Carles Canut, Mingo Ràfols, Boris Ruiz, Lluís Villanueva
and Belén Fabra.
www.teatreromea.com
Theatres, dates and times
San Sebastián de los Reyes.
Teatro Auditorio Municipal Adolfo Marsillach.
Tel. 91 658 89 90.
13th of October at 20:30.
“Implacable nihilistic subjectivity and a tragicomic,
lyrical vision of day to day life”. This was the aspect
of Michel Houellebecq’s work which seduced Calixto
Bieito. “There is nobody to compare to him in his
ability to open up our most intimate wounds, to pick at
what is ephemeral in our lives, the expiry date of our
bodies, our vain attempts to prolong our existence
beyond its limits, all within the setting of a
fictitious liberal capitalist notion of freedom governed
by the morality of Coca-Cola”. “Plataforma” is the story
of Michel, a dull civil servant from Paris who travels
to Thailand with the inheritance money his father has
left him. Once there, he takes on the role of a sexual
tourist whilst entering into an intense relationship
with Valérie, a woman who works for the Nouvelles
Frontières travel company. Having returned to Paris,
both embark upon a new professional project: sex-based
tourism, a world away from Valérie’s moral principles.
Michel Houellebecq (Reunión, 1958) is the author behind
the number one literary phenomenon of recent years in
France. From his biography of H.P. Lovecraft “Against
the World, Against Life” (1991), via “Atomised” (1998),
“Lanzarote” (2000), “Plataform” (2001) to “The
Possibility of an Island, published in 2005, his books
have always been the subject of great controversy whilst
selling millions of copies worldwide. “Plataform” is a
co-production by Teatre Romea, the Edinburgh
International Festival and Viladecans Town Council.
Adaptation, set design and directed by: Krystian Lupa.
Composer: Jacek Ostaszewski. Lighting design: Adam
Piwowar. Costume design: Piotr Skiba. Featuring:
Malgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Agnieszka Mandat and
Piotr Skiba. Spanish Premiere.
www.stary-teatr.pl
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Centro Dramático Nacional
Teatro María Guerrero.
Tel. 91 310 15 00.
http://cdn.mcu.es
5th, 6th and 7th of November at 19:00.
Two sisters and a brother. They are actresses, he is a
philosopher. Three prisoners of tradition in a well-off,
overbearing family. They suffer from neurosis and
loneliness; he suffers from madness and a compulsive,
morbid urge to write. The fruit of this feverish writing
is a string of philosophical treatises, written from
with a lunatic asylum. In one of the sisters’ visits to
see their brother, we witness a confrontation which
reveals hitherto unforeseen and disturbing truths.
Thomas Bernhard has taken as the material for this
drama, the biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and has
portrayed his characters with many of the Austrian
philosopher. Similarly, the roles of the three main
characters, Ritter, Dene and Voss, were specifically
designed around the director’s favourite actors. The
script is noteworthy for its extremely intimate nature,
as is typical of Bernhard’s work, determined by
obsessive subject matters and a haunting rhythm,
expressed in language which often verges on tautological
and baroque. All these elements nevertheless come
together to form a unified piece of work in which the
characters are bestowed with a refined and incisive
insight into the spiritual mutilation of contemporary
man. Krystian Lupa takes us into a labyrinth of human
emotions, seeking to inspect even the darkest corners of
the soul. As critics have highlighted, Lupa is a master
of juxtaposing anguish and tension within an apparently
everyday setting, discovering emotions which envelop the
audience.
OKT / Vilnius City Theatre
ROMEO AND JULIET by William Shakespeare
Country: Lithuania. Language: Lithuanian with Spanish
subtitles. Approx. running time: 3 hours and 10 minutes
(with intermission)
Directed by: Oskaras Korsunovas. Featuring: Gytis
Ivanauskas, Giedrius Savickas, Rasa Samuolyte, Rasa
Marazaite, Dainius Kazlauskas, Tomas Zaibus, Dainius
Gavenonis, Vaidotas Martinaitis and Dalia Micheleviciute.
Set design: Jurate Paulekaite. Original music: Antanas
Jasenkar. Choreography: Oskaras Korsunovas. Madrid
premiere. www.okt.lt
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Teatro de La Abadía.
Tel. 91 448 16 27.
www.teatroabadia.com
12th, 13th 14th and 15th of October.
12th, 13th 14th at 19:30 and 15th at 18:00.
Korsunovas has set the timeless feud between Montagues
and Capulets in a Verona pizzeria. The two families
compete to be the wittiest and most inventive among the
pots and pans in a prologue created by the Lithuanian
director and his cast, who take every opportunity to
take the emotions of Shakespeare’s characters to the
very limit. The battle, which critics have compared to a
Laurel and Hardy sketch, is based around confusion and
mutual hatred. Korsunovas explores humour and tragedy in
this classic work, playing with two elements throughout
the play - flour and dough – as metaphors for
transformation, the past and death. In the famous scene,
his Juliet does not go out onto the balcony, but instead
perches nervously on the highest shelf in the
restaurant. As far as the director is concerned, the
most interesting element of this tragedy is how love can
take on form and grow within an atmosphere of hatred and
war. Nobody knows the reasons for the enmity between the
two families, lost in the sands of time. Nevertheless,
Tybalt defends this rivalry as a tradition which must be
upheld. “Very often we feed traditions which create
conflicts around supposed differences”, says Korsunovas.
“The search for enemies from outside has become an ever
more common tactic in order to strengthen a community.
In this production I wanted to analyse the way in which
hatred shapes differences and uses them to create a
common territory”.
CICT-Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
SIZWE BANZI EST MORT
Country: France. Language: French with Spanish
subtitles. Approx. running time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
(without intermission)
Directed by: Peter Brook. Authors: Athol Fugard, John
Kani and Winston Ntshona. Adaptation: Marie-Hélène
Estienne. Featuring: Habib Dembélé and Pitcho Womba Konga.
Lighting: Philippe Vialatte. Stage elements. Abdou
Ouologuem. Spanish Premiere.
www.bouffesdunord.com
www.peterbrook.net
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Teatro de La Abadía.
Tel. 91 448 16 27.
www.teatroabadia.com
19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd of October.
19th, 20th and 21st at 19.30. 22nd at 18:00.
“Sizwe Banzi is Dead” is a political fable which looks
at one of the key questions facing modern society: the
life of an illegal immigrant, a “without papers” in
search of an opportunity to get on in the world. A
photographer portrays his job on a Ford production line
in the South African town of New Brighton. He
gesticulates, impersonates and bursts out laughing,
arguing with himself. Suddenly, Sizwe Banzi knocks on
his door. This man, dressed in a white suit with an
innocent air about him and carrying a large sack – “a
dream” – asks the photographer to take his picture. He
wants to send it to his wife and four children, who he
has had to leave behind in his homeland. From this point
on we discover all the misfortunes that this man without
papers has had to go through in order to find the most
menial of jobs. This is a no holds barred portrait of
the life of black men and women under Apartheid. Sizwe
Banzi had to die in order to keep alive. This play was
performed for the first time in the very New Brighton in
which it is set. Athol Fugard and his company of black
actors, “The Serpent Players”, use it as a vehicle to
depict both rage and happiness, the point of view of a
whole population seen through street improvisation. For
Peter Brook, “the direct link with the public is what
makes theatre different to any other art form. South
African street theatre is the most beautiful expression
of this”.
Ex Machina
THE ANDERSEN PROJECT by Robert Lepage
Country: Canada. Language: English with Spanish
subtitles. Approx. running time: 2 hours and 5 minutes
(without intermission)
Written, directed and acted by: Robert Lepage. Script
collaboration by: Peder Bjurman and Marie Gignac.
Assistant director: Félix Dagenais. Associate set
designer: J. Le Bourdais. Lighting collaborator: Nicolas
Marois. Sound: J. Sébastien Côté. Costume design:
Catherine Higgins. Images Jacques Collin, Véronique
Couturier and David Leclerc. Spanish Premiere.
www.exmachina.qc.ca
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Teatro de Madrid.
Tel. 91 730 17 50.
www.teatromadrid.com
4th, 5th and 6th of November.
4th and 6th at 20:30. 5th at 18:00.
A composer of Quebequois songs arrives in Paris to write
the libretto for an opera for children, based on a story
by Hans Christian Andersen. During his stay he meets a
number of people including a famous opera manager with
strange tastes, a North African graffiti artist and a
dog who could well have been the narrator of the story.
“The Andersen Project” is inspired by two short stories
by Andersen, “The Dryad” and “The Shadow” as well as
anecdotes concerning his trip to Paris. The piece
touches on a number of Lepage’s main concerns: the
confrontation between romanticism and modernism, between
recognised art and new, “underground” forms, between the
past and the present. However, in this new solo piece,
Lepage also explores more turbulent areas: questions
regarding sexual identity, unsatisfied fantasies and the
anxiety that comes with fame and recognition, as well as
themes from Andersen-s life and work which serve as a
counterpoint to the actual story. Lepage once again
tells a story which motivates, inspires and defines him.
This play is a co-production with Bite:06, Barbican,
London; Festival de Otoño de la Comunidad de Madrid;
Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon; La Comète (scène nationale
de Châlons-en-Champagne); Le Festival d'automne à Paris;
Le Grand Théâtre de Québec; Le Théâtre du Nouveau Monde,
Montréal; Le Théâtre du Trident, Québec; Le Théâtre
français du Centre national des Arts d'Ottawa; Maison
des Arts, Créteil; Pilar de Yzaguirre - Ysarca, Madrid;
Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo; spielzeiteuropa I
Berliner Festspiele; The Hans Christian Andersen 2005
Foundation and The Sydney Festival.
Théâtre-Atelier Piotr Fomenko
THREE SISTERS by de Anton Chekhov
Country: Russia. Language: Russian with Spanish
subtitles. Approx. running time: 3 hours and 50 minutes
(with 2 intermissions)
Director: Piotr Fomenko. Assistant director: MIvan
Verkhovykh. Set design: Vladimir Maximov. Featuring:
Galina Tunina, Polina Koutepova and Ksenia Koutepova.
Costume design: Maria Danilova. Lighting: Vladislav
Frolov. Spanish Premiere.
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid. Centro Dramático Nacional, Teatro Valle-Inclán.
Tel. 91 505 88 01.
http://cdn.mcu.es
1st, 2nd and 3rd of November at 19:00.
4th of November at 17:00.
Three sisters, the daughters of a dead army general, are
living out their dull existence in a forgotten village
out in the provinces. Their only dream is to return to
Moscow, a city which for them symbolises love, culture –
in other words, a life worth living. The arrival of a
military regiment which is to be temporarily based in
the village raises their hopes that their dream might
finally come true. Nevertheless, it is merely an
illusion. The officers, with whom the three women have
become friendly, end up leaving the area. Their sense of
desperation is absolute. They now know with certainty
that life will give them no further opportunities, that
they will never be able to escape the black whole in
which they have been buried alive. Piotr Fomenko has
produced this version of Chekhov’s classic with more
than a nod toward the author, by representing him as a
character who laughs at Stanislavski for his habit of
looking at everything from a tragic perspective, and yet
cries with the suffering of the three women, even asking
the actors on stage to interrupt their performance. As a
backdrop, we see the tedium of provincial life,
reflected in countless small impressionistic details.
The virtual immobility of the actors defines the action,
described through real situations from everyday life -
the chiming of the clock, the dolls that recall innocent
childhood or the wind that can be heard outside. This is
a co-production in association with the Le Volcan
theatre in Le Havre.
Eduardo “Tato” Pavlovsky
VARIACIONES MEYERHOLD (THE MEYERHOLD VARIATIONS)
by E. Pavlovsky
Author: Eduardo Pavlovsky. Original music and musical
direction and directed by: Martín Pavlovsky. Featuring:
Eduardo Pavlovsky, Susana Evans and Eduardo Misch. Costume
design: María Claudia Curetti. Lighting design: Francisco
Rodríguez Spanish Premiere
Theatres, dates and times
Madrid Teatro Pradillo.
Tel. 91 416 90 11.
www.teatropradillo.com
26th, 27th , 28th and 29th of October at 20:30.
Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940) is one of the most
important names in theatre direction and theory of all
time. His experimental works led him to develop his
“Theory of Bio-Mechanics”, a rigorous method of
preparing the actor which sought to exploit his or her
physical and mental potential to the maximum, as well as
being responsible for revolutionary notions of theatre
and single handedly putting in place the principles
behind the modern concept of set design. Along with his
wife, he was assassinated on Stalin’s orders under false
accusations of being a spy for Nazi Germany. Eduardo
Pavlovski has used this key figure from the theatrical
history as the basis for his latest project, which
speaks of freedom, imagination, repression and the very
fundamentals of theatre. This is a challenging piece of
work, as it lacks a written script. The actors have
memorised the basic lines, but from this common starting
point, each performance is different. This peculiarity
is particularly relevant to Meyerhold’s notions of
improvisation and the role of the audience in the
construction of a character. This production is truly a
“family affair”: Pavlovski’s wife, Susana Evans, plays
the part of Meyerhold’s wife, whilst his son Martín is
the director, as well as being the composer of the
original music. “I was afraid” Pavlovsky admitted “of
choosing a director who was incapable of drawing out the
impromptu nature of this piece that I was looking for”.
With this play, Pavlovsky is seeking to contribute to
the spreading of this story of genius and horror. “He
was killed for aesthetic reasons. That is an
abomination”.
