Isotopía del declive

In Isotopy of Decline, Yudith Izaguirre Rodríguez brings a critic's eye and a keen sensibility to the aesthetics of Cuba's Compañía Teatral Tiempo. She begins with an intimate fear of clowns, then moves far beyond the theatre review. She explores the heart of clowning, the dramaturgy of silence and the body's poetry: its power to speak without words where language sometimes falls short.

Organised into acts and scenes, the book leads you through the ideas at the heart of the company's work: human downfall, memory as a palimpsest and the audience's journey towards catharsis. Izaguirre analyses landmark productions such as Inopia and offers incisive readings of metaphors of pain, poverty, love and violence. Yet she never reduces theatre to cold theory.

It's a book for readers looking for a theatre essay with a literary pulse, for students of the performing arts and for anyone who delights in thought becoming experience. If theatre asks questions of you too, this book opens a door. Step inside and let silence speak.