This work puts aside the traditional interpretation of Blue Beard as a torturer of children in the tale by Gilles de Rais. Nor is it about the violent and misogynist Blue Beard seen through the feminist lens nor the neurotic and dominant male ogre imagined by Pina Bausch. This Blue Beard is the representation of a deep melancholy and sadness that destroys any possible whisper of relief. In this tale, Judith represents the kind of curiosity that can kill. Just as the shameless light of modernity obscured the grim sentimentality of the Romantic era, she is a force tending to an obligatory suicide. Choreographers Meritxell Barberá and Inma García reflect on the existence of this closed, sealed and isolated room, located deep within the psyche of each of us. A place housing its storehouse of symbolic corpses.
This production places us in front of that door, much like the peasant in Kafka’s tale standing in front of the doors of justice: completely alone. For loving ourselves, we must be able to walk to that closed door, the denizen of shameful secrets, without opening it. Although it is always in us, we will not confess its existence even to ourselves. We should not be forced to empty the room and must resist the destructive tendency to examine everything, pretending to ignore the thousands of corpses of lost loved ones. No love is heroic enough to survive to the unveiling of the monster lying deep down in all of us.
Artistic direction: Meritxell Barberá & Inma García.
Company: Ballet de la Generalitat
Choreography: Meritxell Barberá & Inma García, in collaboration with Ballet de la Generalitat’s dancers.
Dancers: Alejandro Amores, Gianluca Battaglia, Laura Bruña, Joan Crespo, Diana Huertas, Esaúl Llopis, Jony López, Yester Mulens, Cristina Reolid, Marine Sánchez, Fátima Sanles, Elizabeth Taberner, Marta Toledo and Ismael Turel.
Dramaturgy: Roberto Fratini.
Proginal music: David Barberá (Caldo).
Voice: Juan Carlos Iniesta.
Lighting Design: Ramón Jiménez (CulturArts technician).
Stage Design: Luis Crespo.