DÄMON. El funeral de Bergman [DÄMON. Bergman’s Funeral]

Not quite a year ago, this creator from Figueres fascinated Temporada Alta audiences by inviting them to celebrate her own funeral, a ceremony made of poetic images entitled Vudú (3318) Blixen, which included references to the film-maker Ingmar Bergman. It was the first in a series of staged funerals that examine the idea of death from the moment it is sensed lurking. While Vudú was a journey to the artist’s own funeral, in Dämon she confirms the demons surrounding her under the influence of Ingmar Bergman. The trilogy will end with Eón, or Liddell’s struggle “to totally disappear from the stage”, as she herself has announced.

In Dämon, we’ll witness the funeral that Bergman designed for himself, although we’ll also see references to the author's favourite creations, like Strindberg’s A Dream Play, one of the shows that Bergman repeatedly staged. The actors in Dämon are the same who will later recreate Bergman's funeral. These performers are from the Dramaten, the main theatre in Sweden, where the playwright and film-maker was trained, worked many years and transformed the stage scene in his country. Demons, dreams and fantasies come together in a creation that shows a Bergman who aspires in his dying days to a gentle death, who follows the funeral of Pope John Paul II live on TV and who commissions a wooden box exactly like the one used by the Pope for his own burial. John Paul II’s funeral was an massively attended event broadcast all over the world. Little is known of Bergman’s funeral, although now it is coming to the stage the way he designed it, including the hymns that were supposed to be sung and the musical performances that would have been played. 

Angélica Liddell is one of the most widely viewed and acclaimed stage creators, with an extensive international career that skyrocketed after La casa de la fuerza [The House of Strength] was a resounding success in Avignon in 2010. It was a show with an extraordinary impact, like many of Liddell’s, who brooks no concessions and pushes her arguments to the brink. The winner of prestigious awards such as the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale, she spent a long time away from Barcelona’s stages until the Barcelona Grec Festival scheduled The Scarlet Letter in 2020 and Liebestod in 2021.

Produced by Atra Bilis / Iaquinandi S.L.
Co-produced by PROSPERO – Extended Theatre*, Festival d’Avignon, Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, Teatros del Canal-Madrid, Théâtre de Liège, The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Dramaten, Stockholm and Grec 2024 Festival de Barcelona

* PROSPERO - Extended Theatre is a cofunded project by the European creative programme of European Union, which is led by : Théâtre de Liège, Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione of Modena, São Luiz Teatro Municipal of Lisbon, Göteborgs Stadsteater, Hrvatsko Narodno Kazalište of Zagreb, Teatros del Canal of the Region of Madrid, Schaubühne of Berlin, Teatr Powszechny of Warsaw, Odéon - Théâtre de l’Europe of Paris and ARTE.