Angélica Liddell Makes Her North American Debut at On the Boards

Imagine being the one of the most famous virtuoso musicians in the world at the age of twenty. Imagine, now, that six years later you have lost all sensation in your hands and legs that you use to play your instrument. You struggle to produce even the simplest of sounds; in fact, you can barely open the case of your instrument to play it. Two years later you realize that you will never be able to perform again. Three years later, you will be in a wheelchair. Then you will barely able to speak. You will live out the last years of your life with your born-again Christian siblings and mother telling you that it is all your fault because you abandoned Jesus, and die the same year as your parents. The good news is that you'll go down in history as one of the greatest cellists ever and have a rose named after you.

Essentially that was the life of Jacqueline du Pré, whose recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto with Sir John Barbirolli remains one of the most celebrated recordings in history. It is this legendary figure that is the subject of Angélica Liddell's piece, Te haré invencible con mi derrota.

It might seem an odd choice. Ms. Liddell is known for much more brutal work like La casa fuerza and her Triptico de la afliccion. But of course it isn't an odd choice at all. Ms. Liddell's recent trilogy of plays is subtitled "actos de resistencia contra la muerte." Surely the life of Jacqueline du Pré is ripe material for one who takes on the task of resisting death.

At the time she created the piece, Ms. Liddell was forty-two, the exact age that du Pré was when she died. Throughout the performance, Ms. Liddell engages the spirit of du Pré, alternately becoming du Pré then reverting to her own persona to probe the question: Why are you dead and I still alive?

Ms. Liddell explores the same themes as American performance artists but unlike American artists she has a deep interest in history and archetypes. When Karen Finley or Diamanda Galas would scream about contemporary injustice, their work often appeared very self-centered - the point of view of a modern woman looking at the craziness of modern life. Ms. Liddell's work, by contrast, is self-annihilating. She uses her body and her voice as a gateway. Through that gateway burst characters from myth, fiction and history: Antigone, Ophelia, Madame Bovary, Richard the Third. These characters are dissected and exploded to see why they persist, where they come from. Why can young women not shake off the Ophelia myth? Why does George W. Bush remind us of Richard III? Why have we not learnt the lessons of the past?

Te haré invencible con mi derrota opens a gateway into the life of a woman who was alternately gentle genius, passionate dynamo and destructive tornado. It is much more intimate and personal than Ms. Liddell's other pieces. It is a fine introduction to her body of work. On the Boards have chosen a marvelous opener for their "radical" season and Seattle should be proud of hosting the North American debut of this magnificent performer.