Dream

The Main Hall at Teatro Español will host a show by Natalia Menéndez, stage director, playwright and artistic director of this theatre and of the  Naves at Matadero until a few months ago, and Israel Galván, an experienced and award-winning Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer.  They will both come together to present a choreography that delves into the mother-child relationship, based on the premise that DREAM is an anagram of Mother (in Spanish). The piece can be seen from 17 to 26 May, with performances from Tuesday to Sunday.

Motherhood, understood to be a biological process that puts us on a par with our fellow animals may be tinged with affective connotations as close to love as to hate.    It may often awaken feelings that are combined and alternated beyond any rationality.  This confusing and radical mixture of feelings may resemble a dream.  Or perhaps, a nightmare.

We hear mothers' own expressions in whispered songs or pinched sounds that exhaust us.  Phonetic materiality that goes beyond the content.  We are lulled by the lullaby that shakes us and the milk that stirs us.  Dancing the voice and breaking the waters. Different percussions, whistles and the horn that cries persistently like a baby we want to silence come passionately into the world.

The stage is a maternal space in which a sonorous stage design translates the body into a being that moves, rocks or kicks in a kind of amniotic liquid. With this ritual - between invocation and exorcism - which is actually the oldest in the world, the infinite lawsuit in which the mother is simultaneously accused and defended, lawyer and prosecutor, is once again staged.  The trial, as we already know, is lost. The only thing left to do is to get out of being a mother.

Artistic File:

• A show by: Natalia Menéndez and Israel Galván
• Stage Manager: Natalia Menéndez
• Choreography: Israel Galván
• Cast: Israel Galván, Paquita Cobos Gil (vocals), María Marín (guitar and song) Rest of the musicians yet to be determined
• Artistic Adviser: Miguel Álvarez Fernández
• Wardrobe: Micol Notarianni
• Stage Design: Pepe Barea
• Sound: Pedro León and Félix Vázquez
• Assistant Director: Pilar Valenciano
• A production by: Teatro Español and Israel Galván Company
• Image Credit - © Nicolas Serve

Magnetic loop amplified sound with headphones, audio-description and subtitles for the deaf are available.