Angélica LiddellYo no soy bonita

A woman dances on the stage. She storms, smashes glasses, drinks beer by the bottle and injures herself. Milk and blood flow, and at the edge, a white animal stands stoically – a collage of disturbing images and moments of courage. With tremendous presence and aesthetic clarity, Spanish performer Angélica Liddell’s piece “Yo no soy bonita” (“I am not pretty”) is an indictment of commonplace sexual violence against women that is equally angry and poetic, witty and harrowing. Rebellion and rage characterise the work of this 1966-born writer, actress and director but there is also an extreme sense of vulnerability. Liddell’s eloquent and visually powerful pieces – uncompromising tours de force through the artist’s private pain, fear and desire – link the personal with universal human experience, intimacy with publicity, opposing violence with the force of poetry.
Liddell and her company Atra Bilis Teatro, which was founded in 1993, have created 20 productions to date. As a radical performer, Liddell was initially dismissed to the cultural sidelines but nowadays she sells out shows at large venues all over Europe and overseas. Her theatre texts, which have been translated into six languages, include “El año de Ricardo” and “La casa de la fuerza”, wild and furious rage-epics about the sinister side of life that she has performed on stages in Avignon, Paris and Vienna.