Analphabet: Alberto Cortés' queer and poetic play at the Théâtre de la Bastille

The Théâtre de la Bastille is hosting Analphabet, a spellbinding solo performance by Alberto Cortés, combining queer performance, Andalusian poetry, and nudity on stage, as part of the Festival d'Automne in Paris, from December 12 to 19, 2025.

Immerse yourself in a night haunted by the ghosts of love and the silences of the body... From December 12 to 19, 2025, the Théâtre de la Bastille welcomes Alberto Cortés and his spellbinding solo Analphabet, a show in Spanish with French subtitles, as part of the Festival d'Automne in Paris. Between naked bodies, plaintive singing, and Andalusian lyricism, this sensory and visceral performance questions the traces left by love and violence in the wake of a homosexual couple.

A theatrical ritual haunted by the specter of Analphabet

In the gathering darkness, a being emerges, covered in flowers and shadows. He moves forward in silence, speaking in a fragmented, almost forgottenlanguage—Andalûh, the idiom of a reconstituted south. This being is Analphabet, a spectral figure born of flesh, haunting places of past and wounded love. Through him, Alberto Cortés, Spanish playwright and performer, delivers a work on the borderline between dream, memory, and burning.

On stage, there is no realistic set design, no demonstrative staging. Here, theater is a raw territory, made up of bodies, light, and music. Accompanied by Luz Prado on the violin, Cortés gives free rein to speech, imbued with raw emotion, where song, silence and confession intermingle. This performance, which the author describes as an emotional artifact, rejects any linearity: it leaves room for the emergence of mental images, floating memories and unspeakable pain.

Analphabet : le pièce queer et poétique d’Alberto Cortés au Théâtre de la Bastille — ©Alberto Cortes/Alejandra Amere

A dive into queer intimacy and the ruins of love.

Analphabet is not a story: it is a journey. That of a man faced with the remnants of a lost love, torn between tenderness and brutality, desire and patriarchal heritage. How can one love without reproducing the violence one has learned? How can one escape the masculine codes ingrained in one's skin? In this poetic wandering, the ghost becomes a guide, revealing contradictions and sometimes bringing messages of hope.

Alberto Cortés' body, at the center of the space, becomes a sensitive instrument. He wobbles, stumbles, exposes himself—both literally and figuratively. Scenes of nudity punctuate the performance, not to provoke, but to signify the extreme vulnerability of this story of love in tatters. The violin's heart-rending song, the bursts of voice, the deep silences, compose a sensory score in which the text erodes to make way for emotion.

A theater of the flesh for an audience in search of radical experiences.

If you are curious about hybrid forms combining theater, performance, and poetry, if you like to be unsettled and disturbed, Analphabet is a rare opportunity to discover. Are you a fan of introspective theatrical experiences and authentic queer narratives? This show invites you to journey through an inner night, a territory of the raw soul, between solitude, sensuality, and memory.

Analphabet is not for those looking for a classic narrative or light family entertainment. It is not an outing for children or a play to be seen in a group without preparation. The show requires a willingness to be sensitive, to embrace slowness, strangeness, and a certain form of emotional nakedness. It is designed for those who are willing to confront areas of darkness, to lose their usual theatrical bearings in order to better feel what is left unsaid.

A work supported by a European network of artistic institutions.

The result of an international co-production, Analphabet is touring Spain, Portugal, and France. It is being staged in Paris as part of a Spanish focus organized by the Festival d'Automne and the Théâtre de la Bastille, which this season is highlighting the work of Bárbara Bañuelos and Alberto Cortés, in conjunction with the Rivages communs international production and distribution hub.

This project is also part of a marginal and decentralized creative approach, faithful to the trajectoryof Alberto Cortés, trained in Málaga, creator of texts at the crossroads of performance, contemporary flamenco, and queer memory. The play is also published in book form by Continta me tienes, thus continuing the link between stage and poetry.

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