The project

There were a lot of people. A mass of people moving from place to place. And there was a lot of need to be heard. People paid to be heard. To be heard by someone else who was dedicated to that, to listening. Or also to be heard by a kind of superior being, an idea of God. And to be heard by this God you had to isolate yourself and from there the desert arises. As a place without noise, the only place in which to find silence. The silence that facilitates that listening. A place without distractions, but with other challenges. With sandstorms, with mirages and with authentic oases, privileged places that, in the middle of the void allowed us to light that kind of jam of memories, fears and fantasies that we carry inside. We used to search for this place, like cavers digging into humanity.

The word desert hides behind a great imaginary. It is a fundamental word of many religious and philosophical texts. For Hannah Arendt, it is a metaphor for understanding the place of the human being to the world ('the world is always a desert'). In the Bible, it represents the place where faith in God is tested, and Islam is a religion born of desert journeys in search of divine presence. It is, in short, a word very loaded with meanings: it is almost a symbol. But a symbol that contains a great paradox: we move away from it because it represents an empty space of life and, in turn, we seek its emptiness to get to distinguish the signs that life does not let us see.

This mixture of psychology, philosophy and mysticism is the starting point of this piece that presents four characters who are dedicated to listening to the world.

Credits

DESERT
A show by Atresbandes

Creation: ATRESBANDES (Mònica Almirall, Miquel Segovia & Albert Pérez Hidalgo)
Dramaturgy: ATRESBANDES & Pau Masaló
Cast: Ruben Ametllé, Nicolás Carbajal, Marina Rodríguez & Amaranta Velarde
Set design: Fryderyk Swierczynski
Costumes design: Clàudia Vilà & Adriana Parra
Light design: Ana Rovira
Sound design: Sammy Metcalfe & Miquel Segovia
Photography: Berta Vicente
Executive production: Imma Bové
Production assistant: Irene Vicente
Coproduction: Teatre Lliure, Atresbandes & El Canal, Centre de creació d'Arts Escèniques de Salt/Girona

Running time: 90 minutes
Desert was premiered at Teatre Lliure, Barcelona, on the 24th May 2023.