The Boy in the Last Row

“Plovdiv 2018” Award in the “Theatre” category for the team of the performance “The Boy in the Last Row”

“People need someone to tell them stories. Without stories, life is worth nothing.” “Art should illuminate the world, not feed the chaos.”

THE BOY IN THE LAST ROW
by Juan Mayorga, translated by Neva Micheva

Hermann is a literature teacher who starts bringing home and reading to his wife the homework of his talented student Claudio. The problem is that each of the essays is actually “documentary.” Claudio is obsessed with the normal life of his classmate Rafael Artola’s family and, under the pretext of helping each other with their studies, infiltrates their home, from where he writes increasingly disturbing “chronicles.” As the manipulator Claudio gradually turns from a guest into a factor for the Artola family, and Hermann sees himself as a talent discoverer, the other characters in this story undergo irreversible inner transformations.