Matadero Madrid center for contemporary creation
Los nadadores diurnos (Salón de belleza)
The beauty salon is run by the son of Jean G. -founder of the Order of the Night-time Swimmers- the child with whom the performance of The Swimmers at Matadero ended and who survived the final attack and burning of the Order. So, in this beauty parlour we will find, on the one hand, the inner story of this child, i. e., the attempt to actually conceive a biological and natural child - with lots of surrealistic medical-logistical ups and downs typical of a screwball comedy - by the author of the play and his German translator; and, on the other hand, the lives of all the characters who flock to this nineteenth-century beauty parlour in search of a release from old pains and, at the same time, to prepare themselves -and to get all dolled up- to cross the threshold. Black humour. Gossip and tittle-tattle. Gossip magazines. Classical cinema. Chopin. Spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Boleros and Radiohead.
To a certain extent, Salón de belleza carries on the original idea of Los nadadores, i.e., we find ourselves with a kaleidoscope of fragments and slices of life of typical characters from our current world who do not quite fit in with the demands of our society and who, in a way, are portrayed as the waste of our own system, in other words, its excrement, that which the system expels as a result of an idea of progress that devours humanities. However, in this case, rather than meeting up in a swimming pool and fucking to the point of exhaustion, these characters meet in a beauty salon, which is a liminal zone, a threshold leading to death -or to a new life-, a spa in which these characters settle accounts with one another and prepare themselves physically and morally to cross over to the other shore. This beauty salon is also a spa in which all those who are tired of the world but who know, in their heart of hearts, that there is nothing more important than caring for one another, find a place to shelter.
WARNING TO THE AUDIENCE: Not recommended for children under the age of 16. We inform our spectators that this show uses strobe lights and therefore may affect people with epilepsy.
Audio description
Magnetic loop
Subtitling for the deaf
Amplified sound
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