Contre le progrès

Thinking against… This is Esteve Soler’s starting point for this trilogy, which reveals to us the paradoxes of love, the dehumanisation brought about by progress, and the perversion of the word ‘democracy’ – a word that our Western societies use and abuse. This young Catalan author (born 1976), a modern-day Alfred Jarry, weaves together, one after the other, surrealist, burlesque or ‘Grand Guignol’-style plays, in which biting humour and farce highlight the cruelty and weakness of the characters. He thus takes us on a theatrical journey ranging from cruel puppetry to a scathing futuristic scenario, via a scalpel-sharp portrait of the absurdity of our society. Everything here is put through the mill, much to the delight and bewilderment of everyone.