Late Autumn Theatre

Now back in Spain after my visit to London, I’d just two weeks to kill before I’d wind up on another flight back to the UK once again. There was plenty to be done though, from an impromptu photo shoot of the book we created for IE University to many nice meals with friends, both prepared by yours truly at home and out and about around Madrid.

One of my evenings saw me head to the theatre to watch La Madre de Frankenstein, a piece that I was originally going to watch with Nacho when he visited but which we had to put off due to time constraints. The show was held in a gorgeous venue called the Teatro María Guerrero, a theatre I’d never visited before but which turned out to be beautiful both inside and out.

I do enjoy a lovely old theatre.

The piece, whose title translates to ‘Frankenstein’s Mother’, was stunning. I thought that four hours was going to be a long time, but the sheer talent of the actors and the story kept me on the edge of my seat. It was a beautifully sad tale of a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Madrid during Spain’s dictatorship, one of the hospital’s patients, and a doctor intrigued by her case. The piece drew parallels between the altered patient’s paranoia and the mass paranoia Spain suffered under Franco, something that really hit home. It was exquisite.

I then spent the weekend between cooking at home and visiting restaurants with friends. On a walk with Pedro we came across a hill which reminded me of the infamous Windows XP wallpaper, and then that afternoon I put my glad rags on and joined some current and ex colleagues for a lunch to celebrate Teresa’s birthday. It was a lovely day!

The next weekend I was back out around Madrid once again. Sara, Rocío, and I met up on Saturday evening for a meal out followed by some groovy cocktails in a bar in Malasaña, an evening which was a lot of fun. I then spent Sunday having a Venezuelan lunch of cachapas and then a good wander around the city in the sun, making the most of a sunny afternoon before the tourists descended on Madrid for the Christmas shopping rush!

In the evening I went to see ‘Past Lives’ at the cinema. I enjoyed this film almost as much as I’d enjoyed the theatre performance, with some of the topics it touched on hitting home. It was also just a gorgeous film in general, taking place between Seoul and New York – one I’d definitely recommend.

The next weekend would then see me off on a flight back to the UK: more on that next time!