Todo el cielo sobre la tierra (El síndrome de Wendy)

"The audience remained rooted to the spot for several seconds following the first performance of Todo el cielo sobre la tierra (El síndrome de Wendy)... The beauty that this inconsolable woman manages to create using the ugliness of the world around us is amazing."

- FABIENNE DARGE, LE MONDE

Angélica Liddell, one of the key artists of European avant-garde theatre, returns to the Madrid stage to inaugurate the 31st Festival de Otoño a Primavera in the Comunidad de Madrid's Teatros del Canal from October 4 to 6. The work which the playwright, director and actress will perform for this occasion is Todo el cielo sobre la tierra (El síndrome de Wendy), a production which examines the loss of youth and the fear of being abandoned. It completes her trilogy on China which she started in 2011 with Maldito sea el hombre que confía en el hombre: un projet d’alphabétisation and continued in 2013 with Ping Pang Qiu, both works which also premiered at the festival.

Todo el cielo sobre la tierra (El síndrome de Wendy) takes as its starting point the shooting which happened on July 22, 2011, on the Norwegian island of Utoya, when Anders Breivik murdered 69 young people between the ages of 16 and 26. This tragic incident led Angélica to make the connection between Utoya and another island where youth was also interrupted - Neverland. Here the playwright identifies with Wendy and her fear of being abandoned: "All the time we get older, more disagreeable and depressing but we need to be loved. The only thing we have to decide is up to what point we are prepared to humiliate ourselves. And if I say, I am Wendy, it's to avenge myself for all that has been taken away from me. If I cannot be loved by the living then I will associate myself with the dead."

The music takes centre stage in the production through the waltzes created by the brilliant South Korean composer, Cho Young Wuk, famous for his work with the film director, Park Chan-Wook (whose works include Old Boy, the Grand Prix prizewinner at Cannes in 2004). The world premiere of Todo el cielo sobre la tierra (El Síndrome de Wendy) was in May 2013 at the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna. Before its Spanish premiere in this edition of the Festival de Otoño a Primavera, the work was also performed in July at the Festival d'Avignon in France.

 

Credits

TITLE: Todo el cielo sobre la tierra (El síndrome de Wendy)

COMPANY: Atra Bilis Teatro

DRAMATISATION AND DIRECTION, SET DESIGN AND COSTUMES: Angélica Liddell

MUSIC: Cho Young Wuk

CAST: Fabián Augusto Gómez Bohórquez, Xie Guinü, Lola Jiménez, Jenny Kaatz, Angélica Liddell, Sindo Puche, Zhang Qiwe, Maxime Trousset and Saite Ye

ORCHESTRA: Phace Ensemble

CHINESE PIPE: Xue Ying Dong Wu

 

www.angelicaliddell.com