The National Dramatic Center has presented its program for the 2025-2026 season, composed of 21 theatrical productions, in which, as highlighted in a press conference by the director of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), Paz Santa Cecilia, there is a «broad and balanced» presence of women, up to 51%.
In this sense, it has been detailed that 14 out of the 31 playwrights are women while 14 out of the 28 directors of the productions are female in a new season that carries the motto ‘Dramas to let it all out’, presented this Thursday by the CDN, a unit dependent on the INAEM.
During the presentation, the director of the CDN, Alfredo Sanzol, defended the «artistic freedom» of «drama» as «a good tool» to fight against «forgetfulness, repression, subjugation, and domination.»
«The protection of artistic freedom continues to be a source of conflict when it is undermined by very questionable limits. Drama is a good tool to let it all out, to fight against forgetfulness, repression, subjugation, and domination. Letting it all out, or better yet, releasing everything we need to release, helps to clean the impurities of fear, an inseparable partner of ignorance,» Sanzol stated.
Regarding the season, it will feature 21 productions, including 14 premieres, the traditional children’s cycle ‘Puppet Scene’ — which includes 9 puppet shows — and 55 complementary activities of Dramatic Action.
The new productions will address topics such as historical memory — in the play ‘1936’ — sexual exploitation of women — in ‘Utopía en llamas’ — violence — in the play ‘Violencia’ — humor as a «political tool,» and the importance of education — in ‘Historia de una maestra’.
Furthermore, in the «quest for accessible theater,» in its new season, the institution will offer an inclusive production with 60 accessible performances and up to 14 functions with surtitles, audio description, and amplified sound from the rest of the program.
The Grand Hall of the Valle-Inclán Theater will host five productions: the revival of ‘1936’, with a script by Albert Boronat, Juan Cavestany, Andrés Lima, and Juan Mayorga, recounts and sings about the «shock» that the military coup of July 18, 1936, meant for Spain.
‘Historia de una maestra’, the novel by Josefina Aldecoa, will be brought to the stage with an adaptation by Aurora Parrilla, and a young cast, mostly under 30, will present this story that shows how education is «an effective alternative against violence». Also in this venue, ‘Constelaciones’, ‘The Silence’, ‘Las últimas’, a documentary show that aims to talk about the shared history with the Philippines, the last Spanish colonies, will be performed.
Next, the Francisco Nieva Hall of the Valle-Inclán Theater will offer five productions: ‘Risa caníbal / Riure Caníbal’, a political satire that presents a convention of European far-right leaders; ‘ZUM. Crecerá un jardín’; ‘Gula / Gola’, directed by Pau Matas Nogué and Oriol Pla; ‘Casi ninguna verdad’; or ‘Tinieblas’.
The Grand Hall of the María Guerrero Theater will present six theatrical works: ‘La vegetariana’, the theatrical adaptation by Daria Deflorian of the eponymous novel by Han Kang, Nobel Prize in Literature; ‘El entusiasmo’; ‘La Distance’; ‘La última noche con mi hermano’, which focuses on death and illness, giving prominence to mourning over the loss of a brother; ‘LEXIKON’; and ‘La vie secrète des vieux’, a creation by Mohamed El Khatib, with dramaturgy by Camille Nauffray, which tells a documentary story of how our elders experience love.