Love is one of those great themes that is always repeated and to which no one can give an answer. We wonder how we fall in love, why we love and if our experiences are unique or the same as the rest. This and much more is the question asked by Historia del amor, the new play that comes to Nave 10 of Matadero in Madrid.
With only one actress on stage, the story unfolds through monologues, physical work and the use of cameras and screens. Thus, an intimate and poetic space is built, ideal for reflecting on love. It is a creation of the Barcelona company Agrupación Señor Serano and can only be seen from October 1 to 5 in Madrid, with a performance each day at 7:30 pm.
Why we look for love
Historia del amor investigates why love is still at the center of everything and whether it has changed in the 21st century. The protagonist, played by Anna Pérez Moya, intertwines her own love story with other more famous ones and with those of the audience, so that anyone can feel identified. She proposes a game in which the audience will end up asking themselves: Are the protagonist’s experiences really hers or are they ours?
Love is constructed through the myth of El Dorado, as if it were the promise of a promised land, full of plenitude, treasures and incalculable riches. Àlex Serrano and Pau Palacios are the directors of this play full of questions: Why do we look for love, what do we expect to find, how does it condition our ways of loving? Apart from their own creativity, in the dramaturgy they have counted with the collaboration of Cristina Cubells and Clara Serra, specialist in feminist studies.
Performance, garbage and audiovisual resources
The action is constructed by combining oral narration with audiovisual displays. The protagonist not only manipulates objects while telling her story, but records it with a camera in real time and invites the viewer to enter her intimacy. The result is a poetic and almost documentary story, in which objects and spaces become important.
The performance takes place in a place halfway between an archive, a laboratory and a landfill, where the presence of garbage bags stands out. These remains function as a visual metaphor, as they refer to what is left behind after every love affair over the millennia.
Internationally awarded creations
The company Agrupación Señor Serrano usually works with these fusions between performance, sound, text, video and models to stage stories of human experience. They often create stories of the contemporary and vintage world and have international recognition.
In 2015, Agrupación Señor Serrano was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale for its contemporary, original and innovative vision of theater. For this same reason it has also received the Premio Ciutat de Barcelona and the Premi FAD Sebastià Gasch, which recognizes unconventional stage expressions.
Free for young people through JOBO
Historia del amor premiered at the Crec Festival in Barcelona in July 2025 and now comes to Madrid through Matadero’s Nave 10. General admission costs 21 euros and is included in the JOBO (Joven Bono Cultural) program, which allows young people between 16 and 26 to see it free Monday through Friday.
Registration is free, providing the ID card through the Madrid Destino website, and there is no physical card, but a JOBO account with which to book tickets without paying anything.