The story of the first woman to obtain a favourable sentence for gender violence comes to the Teatro Quique San Francisco (Calle Galileo, 39), until 12 November, with Francisca, directed by Fredeswinda Gijón from the text by Borja Rodríguez, and which has won the special José María Rodero Audience Award for best direction and third prize from the jury in the XXV Certamen Nacional de Teatro para Directas de Escena Ciudad de Torrejón (25th National Theatre Competition for Stage Directors City of Torrejón).
It is a play that connects a real event of the 17th century with our present through a story that could, in truth, happen today (and, in a way, does).
Francisca focuses on the life of Francisca de Pedraza (Alcalá de Henares, around 1600), the first woman who, after being a victim of abuse, managed to win a lawsuit for separation due to violence within marriage. Based on real testimonies, the work traces a journey through those events and highlights the links that unite them with the stories of so many women who suffer violence today. Francisca poses vital questions to the audience as a society, about the loss of freedom suffered by those who suffer abuse and violence, and how this situation influences all areas of their existence, on a relational, psychological, moral and vital level.
Francisca de Pedraza obtained the first gender violence sentence in history thanks to the University of Alcalá́ in 1624 after a decade of litigation: it was the university that issued a pioneering sentence that helped her regain her freedom. The story was made public through an article by historian Ignacio Ruiz. In this way, the company contacted the University of Alcalá́ de Henares to, together with the Instituto Quevedo of the Arts of Humour and the Asociación Francisca de Pedraza, obtain their approval and raise this unique project in the theatrical scene, making known the beginning of a change for women. Tickets can be purchased at this link.
