Paraíso Perdido - Centro Dramático Nacional

Paraíso Perdido

Based on the epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton with text and playwriting by Helena Tornero and Andrés Lima and directed by Andrés Lima

05 MAY – 18 JUN 2023
From Tuesday to Sunday at 8.00pm
Meet the artistic team: 1 JUN 2023

María Guerrero Theatre | Sala María Guerrero

Please arrive well in advance as the auditorium will be closed once the performance has begun.
To collect tickets, our box offices will be open from Monday to Sunday from 2.30pm to 8.30pm.

TEAM

Text

Helena Tornero

Playwriting

Andrés Lima and Helena Tornero

Directing

Andrés Lima

Cast

Pere Arquillué, Rubén de Eguía, Laura Font, Lucía Juárez, Cristina Plazas and Elena Tarrats

Set and costume design

Valentín Álvarez (AAI)

Original music and sound design

Jaume Manresa

Video creation and post-production

Miquel Àngel Raió

Characterisation

Cécile Kretschmar

Synopsis

A tribute to the beauty of Milton’s words from a contemporary point of view, which is also a tribute to the profession of comedic actor, so often demonized for its capacity to transgress.

The epic poem published by John Milton in 1667 explains the tragedy of the fall of man, but also narrates the fall of Satan. Claimed by the romantics to be the true hero, Milton’s Satan symbolizes the rebel who rises up against the tyranny of heaven. Because before the fall of man there is the story of the fallen angel. The story of a failed rebellion and its consequences, which will determine the destiny of men and women. But, are we this way because our destiny was written that way or because our beliefs led us to write it that way? In addition to a celebration of the beauty of Milton’s language, this Paradise Lost also wants to build a tribute to the comedic actor’s craft, so often vilified, underestimated and demonized for its fascinating capacity for transformation and transgression. Comedic actors were not allowed to approach the cities, because it was feared that their trade could contaminate the people of good faith. The fear of knowledge has very old roots. “Can knowing be sin?” the serpent said to the woman. And it was the woman who chose knowledge rather than ignorance. But…


Director’s Note

A flap of wings, a flash of lightning, a thud on the ground, Satan writhes in pain. Pain is born. Satan rises up. Rebellion is born.

God and Satan, obedience and rebellion. Adam and Eve. These four characters star in this tale full of anger and fury, told by a blind man (Milton) that represents a considerable amount of our Western culture.

This staging is the attempt to understand our behaviour, to know if Faith is just a pre-conceived plan to ensure obedience; if spirituality is the intangibility of freedom or the perpetuation of fear.

In the review of our myths lie the eternal questions, the ones we have to keep asking ourselves: Who we are? How do I want to live? How do I face death? Paradise Lost, or the Bible, are books that we can believe in or books that we can interpret, like the most beautiful poetry. I was raised an agnostic, and I believe in the capacity of doubt. Satan challenges me today to ask questions of the one called God, creator, author. Today the theatre looks at itself in the mirror of myth, like the old ones. And John Milton, this immortal blind man leads us into this darkness. Because for those of us who do not obey, darkness is reserved for us. For those of us who believe that the apple, whether it’s from the witch in Snow White or the Devil, is very good. And the extraordinary original sin. And God knows it.

Andrés Lima

Author’s note

When I started writing the stage adaptation of Paradise Lost, I couldn’t have imagined that in a short time we were going to have to face an ocean of losses on so many levels. All of a sudden, everything was unexpected and inevitable, like in a good fiction story. But it was not fiction, it was reality. And a bad reality. Like the devil. The devil, they say, is bad. That’s how it’s always been presented to us. But it’s also useful. How useful to have someone who carries the epithet of evil. That allows others to appear better. More heavenly. That is also what Paradise Lost talks about. About power strategies. About the construction of an enemy.

Every rebellion begins with a failure. Re-bellum means to fight again. You have been defeated, you have fallen, but you get up and fight again. There are many who have tried, throughout history, to make the theatre disappear. But the theatre carries within it, like the fallen angel, the seed of rebellion. It’s always there, ready to get up and fight again. If there is any artistic profession that knows how to fall and get back up again, it’s the theatre. It’s that rebellious child who reminds us that we are not perfect. Perhaps now is a good time to ask yourself some questions about the beliefs that have been passed down to us. About its consequences in terms of the treatment of women, men, all living beings, the planet. Perhaps it’s time to listen to the words of the fallen angel. Before it’s too late to rewrite what we later call destiny.

In this theatrical adaptation, we give the audience the opportunity to feel part of each of the different tribes that face each other in the theatre space, a metaphor for the universe: angels, demons, actors, actresses, women and men. A trip to the place of the other, the opposite, the different, letting oneself go through Milton’s words and discovering what part there is in each one of us: angel, devil, man, woman, comedic actor or spectator.

Helena Tornero

TEAM

Text

Helena Tornero

Playwriting

Andrés Lima and Helena Tornero

Directing

Andrés Lima

Cast

Pere Arquillué, Rubén de Eguía, Laura Font, Lucía Juárez, Cristina Plazas and Elena Tarrats

Set and costume design

Valentín Álvarez (AAI)

Original music and sound design

Jaume Manresa

Video creation and post-production

Miquel Àngel Raió

Characterisation

Cécile Kretschmar

Biography

Andrés Lima

Andrés Lima

Actor and theatre director, she is considered one of the great Spanish stage directors. With the Animalario theatre company, with whom she has won three Max Awards for Best Direction, she has contributed in recent years to the renewal of the concepts of the staging in Spanish theatre. She has completed numerous courses in Spain and has been awarded a scholarship for the International Residence for Emerging Writers, at the Royal Court Theatre (London).

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As a director and theatrical author, the most notable productions are El montaplatos (Sala Matadero in Madrid 2011), El mal de la juventud (Teatro de la Abadía), Penumbra (Teatro Matadero), Fallstaff (Teatro Valle Inclán), Las alegres comadres de Windsor for the Comedie Française (Sala Richelieu-2009), Urtain by Juan Cavestany, Striptease, by A. Lima with Sol Picó and Carles Padrisa…, Marat-Sade by Peter Weis (CDN-Animalario), Argelino (servidor de dos amos) on Arlequino by Goldoni (version by A. Lima and Alberto San Juan), the zarzuelas El Bateo and De Madrid a París for the Teatro de la Zarzuela, Pornografía Barata, Tren de mercancías, huyendo hacia el oeste by A. Lima. Alberto San Juan and J. Cavestany, El fin de los sueños by Alberto San Juan, Los Openheart for the Caracalva company, ¿Quién te importa que te ame?, by A. Lima. Alberto San Juan and J. Cavestany, A solas con Marilyn by Alfonso Zurro, Entiénde de tú a mí by Eloy Arenas, Por mis muertos by Ernesto Caballero, Sergi Belbel, José Ortega and Alfonso Zurro, Las siamesas del puerto and Una noche italiana for the Riesgo company, The Graduate (Teatro Coliseum de Madrid), Alejandro y Ana, Últimas palabras de Copito de Nieve (Juan Mayorga) and Hamelin (Juan Mayorga) for the Animalario company, among many others.

In addition, she is a well-known performer both on television and in film, where her work stands out in Goya’s Ghost by Milos Forman (written by Jean Claude Carriere), Días de cine by David Serrano, Carol’s Journey by Imanol Uribe, Los lunes al sol by Fernando León, Juana la Loca by Vicente Aranda, Un buen novio by Chus Delgado, Celos by Vicente Aranda, La primera noche de mi vida by Miguel Albadalejo, Días de fútbol by David Serrano, Horas de luz by Manolo Matgi, Vida y color by Santiago Tabernero and the short film Recursos humanos as well as in the series Policías, Periodistas and Los simuladores…

© Javier Naval

Helena Tornero

Helena Tornero

Helena Tornero (Figueres, 1973) has a diploma in tourism from the UdG and a degree in directing and playwriting from the Institut del Teatre. She studied playwriting with T. Cabré, C. Batlle, S. Belbel, Enzo Cormann, J. Sanchis Sinisterra and Rafael Spregelburd. In writing and theatre she has found her calling, her long-term relationship. For the writer, her work requires effort, but “it gives you many good things, it teaches you to get to know yourself and grow, it demands responsibilities, but it gives you your space and allows you to be free”. She currently writes, translates and adapts plays.

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In theatre she has written: El Vals de la Garrafa (Joan Santamaria Award 2002), Les Madames (Artenbrut, 2003), Submergir-se en l’aigua (SGAE Award, 2007) De – sideris (2010), You’re pretty and I’m drunk (Teatre Lliure, 2011), Mein Kapital (2012), Sota l’ombra d’un bell arbre (2012), No hables con extraños. Fragments de memoria (Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, 2013), Yesterday (Theatre Uncut, London, 2012) , Búnquer (Festival Grec, 2013), Love & Fascism (Istanbul Theatre Festival, 2014); Fascinación (2015); Kabarett Protocoll; El futur (TNC season Theatre for young people, 2019).

As a translator, she has adapted Casa de nines. 20 anys després. (Teatre Romea, 2019) and has translated texts by Evelyne de la Chenelière, Michel Marc Bouchard, Fabrice Melquiot and Paula Vogel.

© Quique Culebras

ON TOUR

September 2022
23th: Teatro Principal de Palma, Palma de Mallorca
24th: Auditorio de Manacor, Manacor

October 2022

18th: Teatro Fortuny, Reus

December 2022

16th: Teatro Monumental, Mataró

January 2023

21st: Teatro Bretón, Logroño

February 2023

3rd: Teatro Municipal, Girona
11th and 12th: Teatro Lope de Vega, Sevilla
26th: Teatro Principal, Castelló

March 2023

25th: Teatro Arriaga, Bilbao
31st marzo y 1st abril: Teatro Cuyás, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

April 2024

15th: Teatro Adolfo Marsillach, San Sebastián de los Reyes
21st: Teatro Antzokia Principal, Vitoria
23rd: Teatro Gayarre, Pamplona
26th: Auditorio de León, León