Obabakoak to debut in Madrid
Euskara. Kultura. Mundura.
Obabakoak will debut on October 25th at 8pm, at the Valle-Inclán Theatre in Madrid.The play, an adaptation of the novel by Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga, was produced in 2017 by the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao and directed by Calixto Bieito.
Obabakoak will debut on October 25th at 8pm, at the Valle-Inclán Theatre in Madrid.The play, an adaptation of the novel by Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga, was produced in 2017 by the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao and directed by Calixto Bieito.
Published in 1988, Atxaga’s Obabakoak is the most widely recognized Basque novel in recent decades. It has been translated into more than 30 languages and won numerous awards. In 2005 it was also made into a film, Obaba, directed by Montxo Armendariz.
The play plunges the audience into the literary universe of Obaba, a fictional geography not unlike García Marquéz’ Macondo or Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha. The stories in Obaba tell of the geography teacher who recalls his love affair with a woman he only knows through letters, the young teacher learning to ward off loneliness, the relationship between a canon and a child lost in the forest, and the writer who turns his life around with the discovery of an astonishing detail in an enlarged old school photo.
The play is a production of the Arriaga Theatre of Bilbao under the artistic direction of Calixto Bieito. The cast includes Joseba Apaolaza, Ylenia Baglietto, Gurutze Beitia, Ainhoa Etxebarria, Miren Gaztañaga, Iñake Irastorza, Idoia Merodio, Itziar Lazkano, Koldo Olabarri, Lander Otaola and Eneko Sagardoy.
Debut in Basque
The play will be presented in Basque, with the dialogue in Spanish displayed above the stage, on October 25th at 8pm at the Valle-Inclán Theatre. There will another three performances in Spanish on October 26th, 27the and 28th.
As part of an agreement with the Etxepare Basque Institute, every year the ‘Centro Dramático Nacional’ (National Drama Centre, or CDN) dedicates a space to Basque culture by producing a Basque play or including one in its calendar of events. On this occasion the CDN has joined forces with Etxepare to bring Obabakoak to audiences in its original language.
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