Europa Catacrack

Written and directed by Maite Pérez Astorga, this contemporary theatre piece follows Europa, a mother who sets out on a journey with her son and her father across a continent in decline. It is staged in the Sala Francisco Nieva of the Teatro Valle-Inclán.

The protagonist, Europa, has just become a mother and feels she can cope with everything. Meanwhile, those around her celebrate, dance to techno music and talk about sex, alcohol, depression and wellbeing, in a society that tries to enjoy the moment while the structures that hold it up begin to crack.

Then comes the journey. Europa, her son and her father cross a continent that is falling apart, accompanied by a chorus of angels that the boy is the first to see and that, little by little, the grandfather also perceives. Caught between the urge to move forward and the fear of being left behind, Europa ends up sacrificing the little boy in the name of her drive for expansion, while he leaves behind what he valued most: his innocence.

The play starts from concern about the historical moment of the West, but approaches it from a ground that goes beyond the political. The past is forgotten, the present becomes jittery and the future is lost, until a crack, the catacrack, breaks the known world and opens the way to another reality inhabited by beings from beyond. The European crisis is thus linked to a crisis of belief and to the question of what keeps us standing when certainties are lacking.