La ira de Narciso

Director Xavier Albertí, renowned for his hybrid productions combining theatre, concert and staged lecture, is the director behind La ira de Narciso, a play by the Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco, produced by the Teatro de La Abadía for this year’s Autumn Festival.

On stage, a character also called Sergio Blanco, like the author, travels to Ljubljana (Slovenia) to give a lecture on the myth of Narcissus. On the carpet in his hotel room, he discovers a large bloodstain, which sparks his curiosity and imagination as to what might have happened. It is the driving force behind the blending of the myth of Narcissus with a possible crime story in which the boundaries between reality and fiction become blurred.

The main character embarks on a journey through various identities, and the construction of self identity is left at the mercy of truth or violence.

Xavier Albertí and Sergio Blanco are leading figures on the international theatre scene. The Catalan director, who was in charge of artistic direction of the National Theatre of Catalonia between 2013 and 2021, has directed productions by Josep Maria de Sagarra, Joan Brossa and García Lorca, as well as plays such as El dúo de la africana and El maestro Juan Martínez que estaba allí, based on the novel of the same name by Manuel Chaves. Sergio Blanco, who has previously attended the Autumn Festival with plays such as El bramido de Düsseldorf in 2018 and El salto de Darwin in 2020, is a master of theatrical autofiction, which he uses to explore the relationship between truth and lies, as well as the construction of identity. The Uruguayan playwright has received many international awards, including the Off West End Award (twice: for Tebas Land in 2017 and for La ira de Narciso, in 2021), the Casa de las Américas International Prize and the National Playwriting Prize of Uruguay.