Winter Journey (when Jelinek stopped playing Schubert)

Magda Puyo

Winter Journey, inspired by the song cycle Winterreise by Franz Schubert and Wilhelm Müller, is a journey proposed by Elfriede Jelinek through her own artistic and intimate experiences: internet-mediated sexuality, the perversion of public opinion, the cult of youth, the presence of latent fascism, the inexorable passage of time, her love-hate relationship with her mother, the dementia and abandonment of her father, and her self-critique as an artist.

The characteristic freedom exhibited by the author serves as a provocation to create a theatrical game where music, words, movement, and time intersect and resonate, using the dissonances, contrasts, irony, and humor that Jelinek applies in creating her textuality as an invitation to unfold a landscape that goes beyond the spoken word, exploring her literary universe through various genres: farce, intimate drama and musical. The piece oscillates between the "I" and the "us," exploring the challenges of relating to and identifying with the society to which we belong, and which is built on the oppression of a third group, the "others": the strangers, the displaced, the excluded, whom we hide from our consciousness.

"Magda Puyo's staging of Winter Journey is made with an unusual delicacy for the most recent theatrical proposals. It seems as if, just as Elfriede Jelinek takes risks with language and thesis, Magda Puyo also takes risks, walking the tightrope of a profound text that needs to be delivered with the strength and precision demonstrated by the five performers of the work." Andreu Sotorra, “Volves de neu fetes paraules”, Recomana.cat

Text Elfriede Jelinek
Translation Marc Villanueva Mir
Dramaturgy Magda Puyo and Marc Villanueva Mir
Stage direction Magda Puyo
Performers Laia Alberch, Pepo Blasco, Rosa Cadafalch, Clara Peya/Bru Ferri and Encarni Sánchez
Stage design Judit Colomer
Lighting design David Bofarull (A.A.I.)
Musical composition Clara Peya
Movement Encarni Sánchez
Costume design Nina Pawlowsky
Sound design Carles Bernal
Photography Carlota Serarols
Production Management Júlia Simó Puyo
Technical head Joan Martí
Assistant to production and direction Guillem Albasan
Direction intern from Institut del Teatre Àngel Nicolàs 

This project was coproduced by Sala Beckett/ Obrador Internacional de Dramatúrgia and Cassandra Projectes Artístics, supported by Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya and Ajuntament de Barcelona, Programa de beques Barcelona Crea and Oficina de Suport a la Iniciativa Cultural (OSIC). The translation of this play was made possible through the collaboration of Goethe Institut – Barcelona.

CAT/ EN/ ES







Previous dates

Madrid | Teatro de la Abadía
02.-12.11.23 20h

Barcelona | Sala Beckett
05.-30.10.23 20h