This is no life at all!

by Sergi Belbel, Albert Espinosa and David Plana
directed by: David Plana

A sharp and bitter showcase of current life's evils

Synopsis

This is no life at all! is the fourth production by the company T de Teatre. It paints a caustic and sarcastic picture of the lives of five women who suffer some of the most typical problems of modern life.

The characters are in a state of absolute bewilderment, plunged into total confusion, stifled by depression, stress, naivety, the obsession with personal aesthetics and competitiveness. They are incapable of finding a remedy for their lifestyles and live in bitterness and torment, trapped in a cage of their own making.

They all compete among themselves to explain their crazes and obsessions to us, while they float in a dreamlike fog, the main feature of a magical and ingenious set design capable of surprising the spectators. In a space with great visual plasticity, the actresses find themselves at a point of transition, where the challenge is to reorganise their lives, desperate and united in their pursuit of the thing they all long for: happiness.

Using the direct and incisive style that characterises T de Teatre, the show takes another sharp look at the world of human relationships, on the basis of everyday situations taken to extremes. A quintet of insecure human beings consisting of a hyperactive woman obsessed with organisation, a suicidal depressive, an irritable and aggressive executive, a naive conformist and a plastic surgery addict incapable of accepting herself for what she is.

David Plana is the director of the play and also wrote the script together with Sergi Belbel and Albert Espinosa. The texts present everyday situations that are as believable as they are exaggerated, and the spectators, whether male or female, are forced to recognise something of themselves there.

This is no life at all!! is a wild parody on the human tendency to complicate existence, on the mishaps and adventures of five women condemned to coexist with the chaos and the frustrations they themselves are responsible for.

B for Biography

This is no life at all! was premiered at Artà in 2003 and in the same year moved to the Teatre Poliorama in Barcelona, where it ran for a long season. This period in Barcelona was followed by a tour of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. The show was performed in over fifteen towns and cities, including Girona, Lleida, Tarragona and Palma de Mallorca. It came to a close in Tàrrrega in December 2004.

F for Facts and Figures

160 shows and 64,000 spectators

Credits

Actresses: Mamen Duch, Míriam Iscla, Marta Pérez, Carme Pla and Àgata Roca

Cast stand-in: Chantal Aimée

Stage set design: T de Teatre
Choreography: Wardrobe: Cortana and Mamen Duch
Lighting design: Albert Faura (aai)
Sound design: Jordi Ballbé
Original music: Òscar Roig
Choreography: Gema Díaz and Verónica
Lighting design assistant: Carlos Lucena
Executive producer: Daniel López-Orós

Lighting operator: Carlos Lucena/Carles Borras
Sound operator: Albert Ballbé/Marc Josa
Stage manager and head of props: Judit Vidal, José Arranz/Roger Rubio, Nadia
Stagehan, Balada, Pavel Ortega, Mercè Pons and Miquel Simó

Press: Sandra Costa
Production assistant: Júlia Ventura
Production assistant: Carmen Álvarez
Management: Merche Garrido

Website design: Eduard Vandellós (Creactivitat)
Graphic design: Enric Jardí and Ana Hevia
Photography: David Ruano
Costume design: Cortana
Stage set design: La Forja del Vallès and Pilar Albadalejo

Produced by T de Teatre, with the support of the Department of Theatre and Dance of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Teatre Auditori de Granollers and the Ministry of Culture, and the collaboration of El Centre Cultural de Sant Cugat and Televisió de Catalunya.

Acknowledgements: Possessió Binicomprat (Algaida, Mallorca), Noemi Bravo, Maria Josep Figueroa, Companyia Teia Moner and Alba Sola

Show premiered at the Teatre d’Artà (Mallorca) on September 5th 2003.