Angélica Liddell . Atra Bilis Teatro

The enigmatic Catalan theatre-maker and performer Angélica Liddell (1966) started out by creating a furore in the underground circuit. Appearances at the festivals of Madrid and Avignon provided her work with an international springboard. It is no coincidence that Atra Bilis, the name of the company that she set up in 1993, means 'black gall' in Latin, which has traditionally been associated with melancholy. In her theatre, she lets the outside world in, with all its aberrations. Her performances display great vulnerability, an obsessive fear of abandonment and a cry for love. 'Todo el cielo sobre la terra: El sindrome de Wendy' (Heaven on earth: Wendy's syndrome) is steeped in her fascination for China. When Liddell travelled to Shanghai, she promptly discovered that the name of the city could also mean 'pain', depending on where the emphasis is placed. On the street, she met an elderly dancing couple who excelled at the waltz. She introduced them to the Korean film composer Yeong Wook Jo, who she greatly admires. In pathology, the names Peter Pan and Wendy refer to gender-specific syndromes, where sufferers display an increasing lack of emotional maturity. In Wendy's case, it is about a panicky fear of abandonment, which translates itself into excessive mothering…