Electra by Sophocles
Pílades Theater

  Feb. 21
  7:30 p.m.
  18 and 20€
MUN Theater

The MUN stages this reinterpretation of the Greek classic by director Fernanda Orazi, which has earned awards such as the 2024 MAX Award (Best New Show), the 2023 Godot Award (Best Direction), and the 2024 MAX Award (Best Adaptation).

"That which would make life unbearable, that from which we must flee as quickly as possible, is what theater desires. Like a hand holding a flame just to watch it, it affirms it, seeks it out, and recreates it. Theater drinks, eats, and reproduces itself on what we discard and banish because it is impossible to carry out in "real life." Electra is the trajectory of a sustained flame that challenges her own and the performance not to let the fire fall and to raise the stakes of theater as high as necessary. We have said Yes to this Electra and to the adventure of tackling a Greek tragedy that is also, for us dramatic beings, the unplayable. With our sustained Yes, we have come this far to throw this promise into the arena of theater where, as in tragedy, not everything is in our hands." In the words of director Fernanda Orazi.

A tragedy from the past repeated today...

"Perhaps what makes a classic a classic is its ability to offer an ever-new experience, one that is different from our previous encounters with it. It doesn't matter which classic we are talking about, what does matter is whether our intention is to conquer it with our prejudices or to get to know it."
Fernanda Orazi

ARTISTIC CREDITS

Electra by Sophocles

Version: Fernanda Orazi, based on the translation by José Velasco y García

Address: Fernanda Orazi

Cast: Carmen Angulo, Javier Ballesteros, Leticia Etala, Juan Paños

Lighting: David Picazo

Original music and soundscape: Javier Ntaca

Photography and video: Luz Soria

A production by Pílades Teatro

Acknowledgments: Teatro de La Abadía, Laura Klein, La Imaginaria

FERNANDA ORAZI

Argentinian actress, director, and teacher. She currently resides in Madrid. She has worked with Pablo Messiez on ten plays over the last eleven years, the latest being Los Gestos, which premiered at the National Drama Center and subsequently toured. She has also worked as an actress in plays directed by Pablo Remón, most recently Doña Rosita Anotada, and in pieces by Denise Despeyroux, Ernesto Caballero, Pascal Rambert, Carlos Marquerie, and Claudia Faci, among others.

As a director, she premiered her first play in 2003 in Buenos Aires, Teo con Julia. In 2010, she premiered Susana en el agua y con la boca abierta for the Madrid Autumn Festival, in 2012El Rumor Analógico de las Cosas at Cuarta Pared, and in December 2013, she premiered El Futuro at the Teatro del Barrio in Madrid. Then, in 2017, she premiered Encarnación at El Umbral de Primavera in Madrid.

In 2023, he won the Godot Award for Best Director for this production of Electra, which was also a finalist in the categories of Best Show and Best Cast. And in 2024, he won two MAX Awards for this play: Best New Show and Best Version or Adaptation of a Play.

Since 1995, he has been working and researching performance procedures in educational contexts, laboratories, and creative processes.

CARMEN ANGULO 

Actress and dancer. She holds a degree in Classical Dance from the Conservatory and a degree in Literature and Language from the National Distance University (UNED). She made her professional debut with Antonio Márquez's company at the opening of the Teatro Real Opera House in Madrid in 1997 with El sombrero de tres picos by Antonio Ruiz Soler. Throughout her professional career, she has been part of the companies of Antonio Márquez, Joaquín Cortés, Luis Ortega, Rafael Amargo, Rafael Aguilar, Danzadas, Arrieritos Flamenco, Estévez/Paños y compañía, Rojas y Rodríguez, Dançem, Enclave español, Princesa cangrejo dance company, Flamencos en route, Losdedae, Cía Rafaela Carrasco, and Emilio Ochando Y cía, among others.

He has worked on various productions for the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid with stage directors such as Luis Olmos, Calixto Bieito, Jesús Castejón, Amelia Ochandiano, Emilio Sagi, Graham Vick, and Gustavo Tambascio at the Teatro Real Opera House in Madrid.

As a dancer and actress, she has performed in various shows and received several awards.

Javier Ballesteros 

Actor. Trained by Juan Carlos Corazza, Fernanda Orazi, Pablo Messiez, Manuel Morón, Hernán Gené, and Fernando Piernas, among others, this Madrid-born actor has appeared in series such as Historias para no dormir, Sin identidad, Apaches, La Zona, Justo antes de Cristo, Hospital Central, La pecera de Eva, and in the feature films Sordo by Alfonso Cortés Cavanillas and Como la Espuma by Roberto Pérez-Toledo. In 2018, he won the Best Actor award at Notodofilmfest for the short film Matar, for which he also wrote the script and directed.

In theater, he has participated in La Ola by Marc Montserrat Drukker at the CDN Teatro Valle-Inclán, Las Canciones by Pablo Messiez at the Teatro Pavón Kamikaze, La incertidumbre by Pablo Remón at the María Guerrero, Que no by Jesús Cracio, and Cluster by Juan Ceacero and the Exlímite company at Naves del Matadero. He has worked as an actor in Fernanda Orazi's plays Encarnación, El Futuro, and El rumor analógico de las cosas. He is also Fernanda Orazi's assistant director in El rumor analógico de las cosas and in Cuatro Confesiones by Bárbara Santa-Cruz.

His interest in stage direction led him to form the company MUJER EN OBRAS in 2016, where he also writes. In 2023, he won the Max Award for Best New Author for Cucaracha con paisaje de fondo, a production that also won the Max Award for Best New Show.

LETICIA ETALA

Actress. Bachelor's degree in Dramatic Arts from ESAD in Torrelodones, Madrid. In 2007, after completing her final year, she continued her training outside Spain: New York Film Academy (New York), École Jacques Lecoq (Paris), and El excéntrico de la 18º (Buenos Aires). Upon her return to Madrid, she continued her training with various active artists, notably Fernanda Orazi. 

Among his most notable theater works are: La Caja directed by Gabriel Olivares, Medea directed by José Carlos Plaza, Encarnación directed by Fernanda Orazi, and Pasión por Lorca by Consuelo Trujillo. He is currently part of the cast of the Exlímite theater company, performing in the plays Cluster and Ficciones directed by Juan Ceacero.

Notable films include Solo by Hugo Stuven and Yucatán by Daniel Monzón. On television, she played Bruna in Seis Hermanas for Televisión Española; Luisa Tavares in El Secreto de Puente Viejo, also for Televisión Española; and Rosario in Las Chicas del Cable for Netflix.

JUAN CLOTHS

Actor. He began training and working as a magician at the age of twelve and was introduced to theater through clowning, with Hernán Gené and Gabriel Chamé. He later graduated as an actor from the Mar Navarro and Andrés Hernández Theater School, following the teachings of Jacques Lecoq's Physical Theater, where he also studied singing and music. In 2016, he joined the Teatro de la Abadía in Madrid, where he focused primarily on speech work with Ernesto Arias, Vicente Fuentes, and José Luis Gómez. At the same time, he completed his theater training with professionals such as Carles Alfaro, Heidi Steinhardt, Fernanda Orazi, Sergio Blanco, and José Troncoso. 

As an actor, his latest work was in María Luisa by Juan Mayorga for the Teatro de La Abadía. Highlights of his career include La cabeza del dragón by Valle-Inclán, directed by Lucía Miranda in 2022, and MAN UP and La distancia in 2019 and 2020, both by Andrea Jiménez and Noemi Rodríguez (from Teatro en Vilo); all of the above for the Centro Dramático Nacional. Also El Sueño de la Vida (The Dream of Life) in 2019, by Alberto Conejero and Federico García Lorca, directed by Lluís Pasqual at the Teatro Español; and Dos nuevos entremeses (Two New Interludes), "never performed" in 2017, by Miguel de Cervantes, directed by Ernesto Arias for the Teatro de la Abadía. In addition to these shows, she has worked on others under the direction of José Luis Gómez, Carl Fillion, Hernán Gené, Tomás Cabané, Inma Nieto, Raúl Cortés, María Díaz Megías, Fran Núñez, and Jorge Picó. 

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