Emile Zola

‘A story of paralysing passion’1860s Paris. In a small dusty haberdasher’s shop near the Seine in the dank, narrow Passage du Pont Neuf, the young and beautiful Thérèse Raquin is trapped into a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille. While her husband is out all day working, Thérèse spends her days confined behind the counter of a small shop and – every Thursday evening – watching her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin, play dominoes with an eclectic group of ne'er-do-wells. Until the Thursday evening that her husband Camille brings an old friend to the party – the alluring Laurent – and she embarks on an illicit affair that leads Thérèse to abandon all her inhibitions and loyalties as their brutal and overwhelming passion overturns both their lives and has results that nobody could have foreseen... In keeping with the innovative and challenging nature of the original work, this radical new musical adaptation features a company of twelve actor musicians playing the main roles of Thérèse, Laurent, Camille and Madame Raquin, as well as their Thursday night domino playing companions and a watchful and distrustful Chorus.

Emile Zola (1840 - 1902) fue un escritor franc s, considerado como el padre y el mayor representante del Naturalismo. Tuvo un papel muy relevante en la revisi n del proceso de Alfred Dreyfus, que le cost el exilio. Su influencia sobre las generaciones posteriores de escritores no fue s lo literaria, ya que su actitud de involucrarse tanto en la literatura como en la realidad social se transform en un paradigma del escritor comprometido y domin la escena cultural de occidente hasta la d cada de los 70.

V parizhskom kvartale rabochikh i bednjakov prachka Zherveza Makkar mechtaet o prostom schaste: chestnom trude, sobstvennom dele, chistom dome i spokojnoj zhizni rjadom s ljubimym chelovekom. Broshennaja vozljublennym, ostavshajasja s dvumja detmi na rukakh, ona nakhodit v sebe sily nachat zanovo - vykhodit zamuzh, otkryvaet prachechnuju i na korotkoe vremja priblizhaetsja k toj skromnoj, vystradannoj mechte, kotoraja kazhetsja ej predelom zemnogo blagopoluchija. No mir, v kotorom zhivet Zherveza, ne proschaet slabosti. Nischeta, zavist, ustalost, muzhskoe malodushie i razrushitelnaja vlast kabaka postepenno stjagivajutsja vokrug nee, prevraschaja nadezhdu v unizhenie, trud - v iznemozhenie, ljubov - v zavisimost. "Zapadnja" - odin iz samykh pronzitelnykh romanov Emilja Zolja, besposchadnaja istorija padenija cheloveka, kotorogo gubjat ne tolko sobstvennye oshibki, no i sama sreda: tesnaja, grjaznaja, ravnodushnaja, budto zaranee rasstavivshaja kapkan.