What traces do war and fascism leave on bodies and minds?
This is the starting premise for the third dramatic exploration by La Bellesa. Gathering documents and objects from the past – letters, work contracts, diplomas and official certificates, poems written on paper napkins, items of clothing, objects of daily use, photographs – and bringing them to the stage serves to illustrate a range of life stories; stories made flesh that encourage individual and collective awareness of the way in which wars and fascism distort biographies and leave behind indelible traces. Narration as a way to provide meaning and healing.
On this occasion we are working with a group of men and women from Eindhoven (Netherlands) who, through video correspondence, provide a European perspective to this interhistorical record on war, fascism and repression.
The Souvenirs project is the natural continuation of the work that La Bellesa collective has been doing over the past three years, in collaboration with Antic Teatre and director and dramaturge Marta Galán Sala. Following the local/neighbourhood project of 2016 (La Bellesa, Antic Teatre 2016) came a city project (ART I PART, Rebomboris, La Bonne theatre hall 2018). This show is a new challenge for the participants, empowering, inspiring, and connecting them with other realities, increasing their participation in the culture of their city (as well as others) and consolidating their weekly sessions as something that makes them happy, keeps them busy and makes them live their lives more intensely with relation to the present and to the cultural life of their neighbourhood and city.