Phaedra's love

Even her daughter and the doctor warn her that she has chosen wrong by falling in love with an unpleasant, lazy guy who spends his life waiting for something to stir him, while he watches videos, masturbates and has sex with a lot of people that he mistreats after messing with them. But anyway, Phaedra insistently declares herself to Hippolytus, her stepson. And how does he respond? Telling her not to be in love, that she doesn't like him or that "If we fuck, we'll never talk again."

The English playwright Sarah Kane premiered The Love of Phaedra in 1996. In it he rewrote the myth that authors such as Euripides, Seneca, Jean Racine and Miguel de Unamuno had previously addressed. He maintained the axes: Princess Phaedra falls in love with her stepson and avenges his rejection by committing suicide after writing a letter accusing him of having raped her. But in its contemporary version it transformed the secondary and immaculate Hipólito of the myth into a despicable protagonist, delved into the female characters and took all the action to the stage, where the protagonist rides a 1973 Ford Oldsmobile Omega model.

Incest, suicide, rape, castration and parricide. Everything happens in full view of the public and affects the characters and institutions that are devastated in the work. "Today, access to the consumption of violence and pornography is within the reach of a click. It is not something that should disturb. I believe that the greatest cruelty, provocation and violence is found in the way it portrays human relationships. In how it questions, from a skepticism and absolute hopelessness, the deepest bonds that a human being can feel," says director Francisco Krebs (Déjate siempre, Santiago High Tech).

The Love of Fedra is the second text by the playwright who established herself as one of the most controversial and relevant authors of recent years, despite managing to write only five plays before committing suicide in 1999, at the age of 28, using her shoelaces. “I write the truth, and that kills me,” he said.

A comedy about love, faith and depression, this is how Kane herself described this work. The playwright updated the text by including references to the English royal family, portraying a consumerist, flawed and empty world, corrupted by power, desire and violence. And although the text is almost 20 years old, it seems to Krebs that it continues to function as a metaphor for the imbalances in society. "What she does with the character of Hipólito is to reveal the threads that cross the relationships between the powerful, the power of the state, the church, the medicine. This character who is capable of questioning institutions is very typical of the loss of trust that exists among citizens today. What Sarah Kane ultimately does is question all institutions, take away their foundation and leave them only in the shell," says Francisco. This premiere is a co-production of his company, GAM and the British Council. 

Direction Francisco Krebs
Dramaturgy Sarah Kane
Translation Freddy Araya
Cast Paola Volpato, Daniela Ramírez, Rodrigo Soto, Juan Pablo Miranda, Freddy Araya, Felipe Zepeda
Chorus Álvaro Villanueva, Manuela Opazo, Rodrigo Salazar, Francia Beltrán, Mauricio Flores, Sebastián Moya
Music and sound design Alejandro Miranda, Germán Loyola
Costume design Rocío Hernández
Audiovisual implementation and videos Rodrigo Leal, Camilo Ramírez and Gabriela Lazcano
Photography Martín Edwards
Photography and Teaser Andrés Lagos
Scenographic design Pablo de la Fuente
Lighting design Yury Canales
Painting Guillermo Lorca
Community Manager Rodrigo Aro
Production Alessandra Massardo