Angélica Liddell You are my destiny (Lo stupro di Lucrezia)

[Theatre]

In 2009, the Spanish director Angélica Liddell created La Maison de la Force with her company Atra Bilis, a piece in which six women uttered their pain, turning to the violence of relationships with another, when that other is a man. At the centre of the piece was Angélica Liddell’s enraged monologue, in which she evoked a trip to Venice, a city which, in her eyes, represented the epicenter of intimate and collective cruelty. Five years later, the Venice that Liddell returns is a brighter one, and it is there that she sets down this latest piece, entitled You are my destiny (Lo stupro di Lucrezia), described by her as a sort of “redemptive other side of La Maison de la force”. On the stage, her fellow actors from past shows, namely Lola Jiménez and Fabián Gómez, join actors and singers met in Venice. The piece takes a fresh look at the rape of Lucrece, as recounted by Tite-Live and Shakespeare. What the director brings to the stage is Lucrece’s rebellion against what history wanted to make of her: a woman who commits suicide in order to defend her virtue and safeguard her honour. The piece is neither political dogma, nor feminist manifesto. It is the story of a love which extends beyond death. “What I am interested in”, as Angélica Liddell explains, “is not the social order, but the disorder in terms of feelings. And understanding the relationship between desire and pain”.