Amor Fe Esperança

How much strength does love have? What do we have faith in? Is it possible to keep hope alive?

Ödön von Horváth, one of the greatest playwrights of the tumultuous 1920s and 1930s, wrote this "popular piece" based on a real-life news event that a journalist friend had told him about. A girl who has left home and wants to be independent finds herself trapped by the social mechanisms that, with the intention of controlling and regulating work and relationships between people, end up suffocating her destiny. Healthcare, the job market, social assistance, the judicial system, the police apparatus... Horváth traces the journey of Elizabeth, a case taken from everyday life that ultimately becomes a true "dance of death".

But despite everything, despite the dark premonition that surrounds Elizabeth and despite the pettiness of all those around her, Horváth's gaze always maintains a strange warmth. With a personal mixture of irony, tenderness, and black humor, Horváth vividly describes the dreams and miseries of ordinary people, the working classes, and the petite bourgeoisie. In a society where fascism is brewing underground, Horváth neither saves the good nor accuses the bad, but rather alerts us to the diffuse evil in everyone. Amor Fe Esperança was supposed to be premiered in 1933, but the Nazis' victory in the elections led to an immediate ban on its premiere. Today, the play, for better or for worse, remains entirely relevant.

This play is dedicated to all the women and men who every day manage on their own, without papers, in a world where they are made to believe they are more of a nuisance than a service. I don't know if it's still possible to believe in love, faith, hope. But I do believe in courage.

Carlota Subirós