11. Madách International Theatre Meeting

María Luisa is an elderly lady who lives alone, independent and enjoys life. A casual conversation with the doorkeeper of the house is the trigger for a succession of scenes that, with a lot of humour and an endearing tone, allow us to discover the world of this curious lady up close. Her flat, her trips around the city on public transport, her wandering outside the door of a dance hall, the telephone conversations with her friend Angelines… With this recently written work, Juan Mayorga makes his debut at La Abadía after assuming the artistic direction of this theatre. A comedy about loneliness, old age, and the blurred boundaries between reality and imagination.

The director’s presentation 

Old age and desire

In a conversation in the stands, while we were watching a Little League basketball game in which our daughters are playing, a friend who works as a goalkeeper told me that he had just given some advice to an elderly woman, a neighbor of his property: he had suggested adding some names in her mailbox, so that the crooks wouldn't know that she lived alone.

I immediately began to imagine María Luisa, who comes to have a snack, like every Thursday, with her friend Angelines, and who, reluctantly, agrees to add names to the little sign on the mailbox, without knowing - or is she already beginning to know? - who is going to embark on a great adventure.

I really enjoyed writing María Luisa and I have enjoyed even more putting it together with Juan Codina, Lola Casamayor, Paco Ochoa, Juan Paños, Marisol Rolandi and Juan Vinuesa, six extremely talented performers who create theater with the seriousness and joy of children. We were accompanied by the set designer Alessio Meloni, the illuminator Juan Gómez Cornejo, the musician Yaiza Varona, the costume designer Vanessa Actiff, the assistants Laura Mihon and Ana Barceló and the enthusiastic teams from the Zone and the Abadía Theatre.

My friend, the doorman, tells me that he laughed and was moved by María Luisa. He also says that it is a work about old age, loneliness, imagination and desire.

Juan Mayorga