"It's important that things take us by surprise"

BarcelonaHow do you write beauty? The poet Dolors Miquel does it like this: "Her small and pretty heart comes out from among the tons of fat. Like a butterfly comes out of its cocoon." Now, how is this represented on stage? What must a performer do to convey the feeling of a "sheep with its throat cut open and through which all the blue blood of the world flows"? The challenges of converting Kill me psychosis In a show, they were considerable, but director and playwright Lucia Del Greco (Rome, 1992) joined in with enthusiasm. "I like projects that drive me crazy, that have unknowns and an air of mystery. It's important that things take us by surprise," explains Del Greco. Kill me psychosis It can be seen at the Joan Brossa Free Arts Center until March 9 and is Lucia Del Greco's new production afterThe heart's desire (2022), The Enchanted Ones (2023) and Pure passion (2024).

The director arrived at Kill me psychosis The text was first proposed by the director of the Brossa Foundation theatre, Georgina Oliva. The first thing that the text provoked in her was "a great tension between an ancestral, raw and visceral world and a cosmic world of skyscrapers, mirrors and shiny textures". After months of working on it, she now sees the work as "a journey towards the loss of the name, the return of the animal, nature and the dissolution of the self", which speaks of beauty and the darkness of humanity from poetry. Del Greco did not want to lose all that essence, so to bring it to the stage he has tried to create "a landscape work" instead of "closing the meanings of the text".

For all this, he has surrounded himself with a team that is fully committed to the creative process. The actress Alba Pujol embodies the narrator of the work in her first monologue, advised on the dramaturgy by Albert Roig and on the movement by Lorena NogalThe costumes have been created by Chloe Campbell, the sound space is by Alejandro Da Rocha and the scenery and lighting by Cube.bz. These, regular collaborators in Del Greco's pieces, have created a large container from which Pujol experiences this poetic journey that will take her to a slaughterhouse, a reality show, a mortuary room and a mental space.

The transformation of souls

This will be the first time that Kill me psychosis The play takes the form of a theatrical performance - only one dramatised reading had been done at the Sala Beckett. Dolors Miquel has not yet seen the entire production, but has collaborated from a distance in its staging. "We have exchanged materials and references. She is a woman of incredible generosity, we have had her very close," explains Del Greco. The poet transmitted to them "the vision of the transformation of souls", which they tried to bring to the stage.

"The text speaks of identity and that all living beings are in constant metamorphosis," says Del Greco. The protagonist experiences these changes at the same time as she collides with the cruelty of the world. "There is violence from people against animals, from society against people, from people against themselves. The play seeks to reconnect us with our most bestial part," emphasises the director, who adds that in the face of the darkness and pain of the world there is a call to "love as a force that generates life."