Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is a piece that, both musically and narratively, is very cinematic, while politically it is a bizarre aesthetic anomaly during Stalinism. Aside from the glorification of the proletariat to the taste of the ideologists of the time, this is a real "thriller". The story takes place deep in the Russian countryside in the 19th century (Mtsensk, about 300 km from Moscow, is the region to which criminals have traditionally been banished throughout history). 

The main character is Katerina, a merchant's wife who, psychologically wiped out, bored with her husband and subjected to the tyranny of her father-in-law, is seduced by a depraved worker in the family factory, and ends up murdering first her father-in-law and then her husband, believing that by doing so she can achieve freedom. The new couple live together until a peasant accidentally discovers the crime, and reports it to the corrupt police of the time. The story ends with the murderous couple's deportation to Siberia. The pursuit of a dream that is short-lived: betrayed in the poverty of the escape that ends tragically. 

In Àlex Ollé's new production, Katerina, imprisoned in her bedroom, represents the ideal of a woman turned into a metaphor for an unattainable future of someone who is supposed to give life, but ends up being the source of death. A woman subjected to the traditional patriarchal system and trapped in an immutable family structure with female sexuality reduced to childbearing. We are talking, then, of an erotic rebellion as the first step in the search for a dream: individual freedom against the tyranny of the family. 

But this carnal passion is confused with love, love with surrender, surrender with submission and, finally, submission with sacrifice and the acceptance of suffering. Katerina is alone! With her wounded gaze and an identity to build, she shows herself through violence; killing is the only way out!