La nit de Catalina Homar

One of our most renowned writers, José Carlos Llop, is making his playwriting debut by giving a voice to the most popular lover of Archduke Ludwig Salvator: Catalina Homar. An almost taboo name, a figure that has always been considered secondary and someone that practically lacks a biography.

With this monologue Llop tears down the “curtain of secrets” that surrounds the figure of Homar. In the work, the character speaks to us from beyond the grave. The setting seems to be Purgatory. It is the soul of Catalina Homar that explains what her life was like, and how one man, Ludwig Salvator, opened up a universe to her that was unimaginable for a Mallorcan country girl at the end of the 19th century.

In La nit de Catalina Homar, she speaks and vents her feelings. She tells us what she feels and what she felt. Her character takes centre stage and she shows us that she was an active subject in her life and not just a mere extra. She talks about feelings and ideas, she depicts her world, she talks about her love but also about love, loneliness and the role of women. She explains her landscape as a moral reference point but also as a self-portrait. She sometimes makes us laugh and at other times gives us tough moments and a flood of vitalism. When we see her, we get a better understanding of that verse by Robert Graces that says: “Man Does, Woman Is”.

The acclaimed Mallorcan actress Catalina Solivellas is the women who brings this other Catalina to life, in a tour de force that promises truth, emotion and memory.

Production by the Teatro Principal de Palma
Photo: Xim & Joe