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Archivo > Edición 70 (2024) > Teatro María Luisa >Monsters. The prodigy of the gods

July 6th, 2024. 8:00 pm

Monsters. The prodigy of the gods

From texts by Calderón de la Barca

CLASSIC

Calderón de la Barca has the ability to subjugate us with complex, deep and enigmatic characters, who create atmospheres around them that are impossible to understand from the poor perspective of reality. Perhaps Calderón is the golden playwright who descends the most into the depths of being, the one who most in combat places the character in front of his deepest and most unspeakable fears and longings.

Following this idea we have wanted to approach characters from the Calderonian world who are placed on the threshold of the human, the real and the natural, that is, close to the extraordinary, the prodigious and the monstrous. Monster, a fantastic being that causes fear. Being that presents anomalies with respect to its species. That which is excessive. Monstrous is extraordinary. Calderón, in many of his works, places one of these monsters as the protagonist, sometimes accompanying them with prophecies that announce, before his birth, that they will be the culprits of a fatality. That is why other humans lock them up, hide them, thus preventing the world from the evil that their freedom would cause them. In this piece, based on texts such as The Daughter of the Air, The Monster in the Gardens and The Greatest Monster in the World, and with echoes of other characters such as Segismundo, from Life is a Dream, we ask ourselves if they are not fear, repression and, ultimately, violence the true parents of these monsters. On stage Semiramis, Achilles and Herod, three monsters belonging to these three works by Calderón, will tell their stories from their point of view. Thus interweaving narration in the voice of the characters themselves, and scenes from said works. These are three journeys that go from prison to freedom. From deception to knowledge of identity. From love to the most absolute perdition. Perhaps, you will understand why one day, in a world of humans, you woke up caged like beasts. Why are they feared? And why fear caused them to lose what they loved most.

Recommended age: from 16 years.
Duration: 80 minutes.


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