script and direction Sergio Blanco
perfomers Gustavo Saffores, Walter Rey and Soledad Frugone
video art Miguel Grompone
staging, wardrobe and lights Laura Leifert and Sebastián Marrero
sound design Fernando Tato Castro
voice preparation Sara Sabah
bass preparation Nicolás Román
communication and press Valeria Piana
cover image Rubén Lartigue
graphic design Augusto Giovanetti
photography Narí Aharonián
direction assistance Juan Martín Scabino
production assistance Danila Mazzarelli
production and distribution Matilde López Espasandín
lenght 1 hour and 40 minutes
national première
in Spanish with English and Italian subtitles
Following the auto-fiction line that French-Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco has been walking through for several years, his latest theater piece El bramido de Düsseldorf is a play that speaks of the agony and death of the father of a theater author at a clinic in Düsseldorf, a city where this playwright has traveled to carry out a project we will never know with certainty and accuracy what it is.
As the play develops, the three possible hypothetical reasons why the playwright is in Düsseldorf will intertwine in a vertiginous theatrical game. These reasons oscillate between: attendance at the opening of an exhibition about Peter Kürten -the infamous German serial killer from the beginning of the 20th Century, known by the nickname “Düsseldorf’s vampire”, and for which exhibition the author has written a catalog; attendance to sign an agreement as porn movie screenwriter for one of the largest film production companies of the European porn industry, and/or attendance to move forward into his conversion into Judaism through circumcision in the famous Düsseldorf Synagogue. Therefore, in parallel to the subject matter related to the death of his father – which will be core- the script will also address art limits, sexuality representation and the search for God.
Düsseldorf. While the Son leaves the Hospital to buy cherries, the Father dies listening to The Messiah of Handel. Thus, a retrospective journey begins through lawless events where any transgression was and is possible. A self-fiction unfolding that addresses complex topics, in this script, the search and desire of Judeidad that boosts one of the journeys of the Son, unravels the different forms of contemporary slavery and the silent reification of historical and current crimes. In each fold labyrinthically unravelling, Sergio Blanco interrogates and allows being interrogated by abyss and voids. Therefore, simultaneously, the sequences -the roars- appeal to a deep ethic, a bold look that depicts the dark zones of each one of us, whilst it restores tenderness and Parent-
Child love. In the heart of El bramido de Düsseldorf’, beams of happiness and vitality of the whole denote that it is possible and necessary to write and do theater after Auschwitz-Birkenau and
during the contemporary Holocausts.
Raquel Lubartowski
From the press:
«As is the case with many of the innovations the local stage currently offers, text and staging are quite intertwined, through an accurate work of amalgamating the script to the stage,
and to the three performers that will perform it. In this new play, Blanco raises the bet of what he has already shown in Tebas Land or La ira de Narciso. Once again, there is a game of fictional
levels and references that play between reality and fantasy, but here stage discourse is much more fractioned, at times, appearing to be a rehearsal of the play itself. (…)
The playwright offers many scenes for spectator to put together, and somehow, not all members of the audience will be able to fully grasp the game proposed. But that is of no consequence,
because rather than putting together an argument, his interest lies in how he is presenting the scene». – El Paìs UY, August 2017
«El Bramido de Düsseldorf is basically a “conjuring” of death, love and self-fiction. True theater lies in taking risks and here Blanco risks even more than ever before. (…) With three formidable performers, when one comes into the hall, there is a set design resembling a sort of white surgery room over which all kinds of messages are projected, but besides the day’s news, several communications are projected with actors already on stage, with gay aesthetics, the different topics are developed.
Sergio Blanco with his parricide NARRATED in Tebas Land, with his voice that illustrated La Ira de Narciso and with El Bramido de Düsseldorf through a deer goes as far as to claim that art has no moral and that is what impresses the most.
Sergio Blanco: You’ve upset me again because you are the greatest Uruguayan playwright of the 21st Century». – Radio Océano, August 2017
Sergio Blanco
Currently living in Paris, French-Uruguayan playwright and theater director, Sergio Blanco spent his childhood and adolescence in Montevideo. After studying classic philosophy and theater
direction in Comédie Française, he decided to fully devote to theater writing and direction. Since 2008, he has been one of the directors of COMPLOT (Contemporary Performing Arts Company).
He has been repetitively awarded different prizes for his plays, namely, the Uruguayan National Drama, the Drama Award of the City of Montevideo, the National Theater Fund Award,
the Florencio Sanchez Award for Best Playwright, International Casa de las Americas Award and the Theater Awards for Best Script in Greece. In 2017, his play Tebas Land was awarded the
prestigious British Off West End Award in London.
His work became part of the Uruguayan Comedia Nacional in 2003 and 2007, with his plays .45’ and Kiev. Amongst his best-known titles, the following stand out: Slaughter; .45’; Kiev; Opus
Sextum; diptiko (vol. 1 & 2); Barbarie; Kassandra; El salto de Darwin; Tebas Land; Ostia, La ira de Narciso, El bramido de Düsseldorf and Cuando pases sobre mi tumba.
Most of his scripts, apart from having been published and performed in his country of origin, have been translated into various languages and published in various countries. In the last few years, his theater art has been premiered in France, Germany, England, Spain, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Luxembourg, USA, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and Peru.
Specialized in Performance Writing systems, he has directed, in different Latin American and European cities, multiple workshops and research projects that always conclude in the form of
widely attended shows, performances and public interventions; this was case with Escenas de Penitencias y Autopsias, 10 dramaturgos en la plaza pública, Louvre/Banlieue, África Street and
Susurrantes.
In parallel with his work as playwright and director, Blanco develops an intense academic activity that has driven him to holding seminars, workshops and conferences in different university
and cultural institutions of Europe and Latin America.
Between 2008 and 2014 he worked for the Ministry of Education and Culture of France, coordinating and directing literary writing workshops in different educational centers; in March
2013, he was appointed by University Carlos III in Madrid Artistic Director of the European project Crossing Stages that gathered different artistic universities and institutions from different European countries for two years. That same year, he was invited by Comedia Nacional of Uruguay to direct the First National Drama Seminar and, in 2014, the Instituto Nacional de Artes Escénicas of Uruguay granted him the direction of a stage research Blanco carried out for a year jointly with eight researchers and that revolved around the topic of La Autoficción: decirse en escena [Autofiction: making up your mind on stage].
In August 2013, he premiered Tebas Land; in March 2015, Ostia, a script interpreted by himself jointly with his actress sister Roxana Blanco; in August 2015, La ira de Narciso with the performance of playwright, director and actor Gabriel Calderón; and in August 2017, he premiered El bramido de Düsseldorf in Teatro Solis in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Currently, he is preparing the production of his latest script Cuando pases sobre mi tumba that will premiere in 2018 in Montevideo, Uruguay.×