Playwright Celso Giménez starts from the premise that it is the third generation after a war that seeks answers.
This weekend, La Salita will stage Las niñas zombi, the debut solo creation of writer and theatre maker Celso Giménez, co-founder of La Tristura company. The show will be performed on Saturday (October 4) at 7.30 p.m. and Sunday (October 5) at noon, in the special theatre space at the Auditorio de Tenerife. After the premiere, a discussion session with the actors will be held for attendees.
Celso Giménez bases his work on the idea that the third generation after a war—the youngest members of the family—are the ones who start to uncover their elders’ memories. ‘We have lived ignoring the war, the stories of our grandparents, but once you learn a little, you want to learn everything,’ the playwright explains.
On stage, actresses Natalia Fernandes, Teresa Garzón, and Belén Martí Lluch portray three young cousins spending a night together in a country house. They drink, dance, laugh and catch up. Amid the excitement over being reunited, one of them wants to tell the other two a story: She says, ‘The other day I got a call. They’ve found a body at the riverside. Do you know what really happened to Grandfather?’—the night changes from this moment onwards.
The cousins start to reflect on the truth of a past they did not experience: What did their grandparents have to go through when they were their age? Are the youngest alive because of all that? They are the granddaughters, the third generation of the war. They have first-hand experience with many of its consequences. Why do they seem to the cousins to be adventures in a distant land, or from true-crime series or Hollywood films about vampires and zombies? Are they supposed to feel guilty for having this impression?
Las niñas zombi is a production by Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Conde Duque, Festival Grec, Grand Theatre de Groningen, Noorderzon Festival, MA Scène Nationale de Montbéliard, Comunidad de Madrid, Auditorio de Tenerife, and La Tristura.
In 2005, Celso Giménez founded La Tristura alongside Itsaso Arana and Violeta Gil, an artistic collective to which he has remained committed. Through this company, he has developed an extensive project focused on research and theatrical creation. Among his significant productions are Future Lovers, CINE, and Renacimiento. His practice explores the boundaries between documentary and fiction, as well as between presentation and representation, underpinned by the conviction that intimacy and poetry are inherently political concepts.
Tickets for the shows at La Salita, at a general price of 8 euros, can be purchased at the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium’s box office, or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There are discounts for those under 30, subscription holders of Ópera de Tenerife and wheelchair users.