Antílops

Henning Mankell

The Swedish writer Henning Mankell, author of highly successful thrillers starred by the famous detective Kurt Wallander and director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo, began his literary career as a playwright and has always shown his devotion to theatre. In the Sala Petita, and in co-production with the Centre d’Arts Escèniques de Terrassa, we will be able to see Antílops, one of his plays. A couple is about to leave Africa after fourteen years working on an international aid programme. On the last day of their stay in the African continent they receive the man who will take their place. As they evaluate the last few years, to the astonishment of the recent arrival, the couple reveals all their personal and work conflicts that have emerged over time, while Africa is literally invading the house. Mankell is a lover of Africa, where he spends half his time. The continent appears in several of his novels and plays, such as The White Lioness or The Eye of the Leopard, and becomes, so to speak, one of the leading characters of Antílops. The playwright shows us, in a sublime text full of cynicism, an Africa tainted by the phantoms of the Western vision. A tale that recalls Dance of Death by August Strindberg because of the tensions of the tormented couple, and which poses a very current and yet unusual issue in the theatre of our time. A challenge for the actors, and a pleasure for the audience.