Two women with power in their hands pursue truth and collide with elaborate deception
En el Teatre Goya de Barcelona, dos mujeres se enfrentan esta semana sobre un escenario para explorar lo que ocurre cuando el poder y la verdad chocan con el engaño. 'Malditos tacones', escrita por Ignacio Amestoy y dirigida por Magüi Mira, no ofrece respuestas cómodas, sino que invita a contemplar la distancia entre lo que decimos ser y lo que realmente somos. En un tiempo en que la confianza se erosiona y la sociedad exige transparencia sin recibirla, la obra se instala en esa grieta incómoda y pregunta qué revela.
- Dos mujeres con poder en las manos persiguen la verdad y se topan, en cambio, con un engaño elaborado que las obliga a mirarse la una en la otra.
- La directora Magüi Mira responde a un momento de crisis ética contemporánea: los valores se disuelven, las estructuras tambalean y la demanda social de transparencia queda sin respuesta.
- El conflicto escénico entre Luisa Martín y Olivia Molina tensiona la diferencia entre el espacio público —donde nos mostramos— y el espacio íntimo —donde verdaderamente nos formamos—.
- La producción, que lleva un año recorriendo España tras su estreno en Madrid, llega a Barcelona consolidada como una de las obras de teatro contemporáneo más relevantes de la temporada.
- El espectáculo no propone soluciones: su apuesta es que el acto mismo de mirar honestamente al poder y a uno mismo ya constituye, en sí, el punto de llegada.
El Teatre Goya de Barcelona acoge esta semana 'Malditos tacones', una tragedia contemporánea escrita por Ignacio Amestoy y dirigida por Magüi Mira, con Luisa Martín y Olivia Molina como protagonistas. La obra gira en torno al encuentro entre Victoria Burton, una poderosa matriarca familiar, y una abogada de mente afilada. Lo que comienza como una confrontación entre dos temperamentos opuestos se convierte en un estudio sobre el abismo entre la apariencia y la realidad, entre lo que reclamamos ser y lo que somos.
Mira ha concebido la pieza como una respuesta a un momento histórico preciso: aquel en que la confianza colectiva se fractura y la sociedad exige transparencia sin obtenerla. La obra pregunta qué sucede cuando esa demanda choca con quienes prefieren la opacidad al escrutinio. Pero la reflexión no se detiene ahí: la directora entreteje también una meditación sobre la identidad, sobre cómo nos construimos en los espacios íntimos más que en los públicos, y sobre cómo el patriarcado y las convenciones de la feminidad moldean esa construcción desde dentro.
Martín, que ya había trabajado con Mira en 'Salomé', ha destacado el placer de reencontrarse con Molina, a quien describe como garantía de calidad. Molina, por su parte, subraya la paradoja central de la obra: dos mujeres radicalmente distintas que terminan reconociéndose la una en la otra. Producida por Pentación Espectáculos y presentada por Focus, la obra lleva un año de gira por España desde su estreno en Madrid, ganando audiencia y peso crítico. Lo que ofrece al espectador no es consuelo ni solución, sino la incomodidad fértil de mirar de frente al poder, a la verdad y a uno mismo.
Barcelona's Teatre Goya opens its doors this week to 'Malditos tacones,' a contemporary tragedy that traces the collision between two women and the forces that shape them. The production, written by Ignacio Amestoy and directed by Magüi Mira, runs from Tuesday through Sunday, September 7th, with Luisa Martín and Olivia Molina carrying the weight of the piece.
The play centers on a confrontation between Victoria Burton, a powerful family matriarch played by Martín, and a sharp-minded lawyer portrayed by Molina. Their encounter becomes a study in how women of vastly different temperaments can nonetheless recognize something true in each other. The script examines what happens when two people with power in their hands pursue truth and instead collide with elaborate deception. It is, at its core, a story about the gap between what we claim to be and what we actually are.
Mira has positioned the work as a response to a particular moment in contemporary life. She describes a time when trust, values, and ethical moorings have begun to dissolve, when the structures that once provided stability now feel precarious. In response, she argues, society has begun demanding something it rarely receives: genuine transparency. We want clarity about what we buy, how we travel, who we speak with. The play asks what happens when that demand meets resistance, when the powerful prefer obscurity to honesty.
The director has also woven into the narrative a meditation on identity itself—specifically, how we become who we are. She suggests that while public spaces can offer us strength and validation, it is in intimate, private spaces where our true selves are actually forged. The work does not shy away from examining how patriarchal structures and conventional notions of femininity shape that formation. These are not abstract questions; they are embedded in the specific conflict between the two women on stage.
Martín, returning to the Teatre Goya after a previous collaboration with Mira on 'Salomé,' has spoken of her pleasure at working again with Molina, whom she describes as both a delight and a guarantee of quality. Molina, for her part, has emphasized the dynamic between her character and Martín's—two very different women who nonetheless find themselves reflected in one another, despite their opposing natures.
The production is mounted by Pentación Espectáculos and represents a continuation of a theatrical journey that began a year ago in Madrid. Since that premiere, the work has traveled through various Spanish venues, building an audience and establishing itself as a significant piece of contemporary drama. Jordi González, vice president of art and content at Focus, has expressed satisfaction with the previous season's reception and welcomed the opportunity to begin the new one surrounded by what he calls great friends.
What emerges from these details is a portrait of a work that refuses easy answers. It does not propose that transparency will solve our problems or that women, even when they recognize themselves in each other, will find common ground. Instead, it seems to suggest that the act of looking honestly at power, at truth, and at the ways we construct ourselves in relation to others, is itself the point. The play invites its audience to sit with that discomfort for two hours and see what it reveals.
Citas Notables
We are in a moment when trust, values, and ethics are dissolving, and society responds by demanding transparency in everything—what we buy, how we travel, who we speak with.— Magüi Mira, director
Our true identity is forged in intimate, private spaces, not in public ones, though public spaces can offer us strength.— Magüi Mira, director
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does a play about two women confronting each other matter right now, in 2025?
Because we're living in a moment when people say they want honesty but institutions keep secrets, when we demand transparency while accepting convenient lies. The play doesn't offer solutions—it just holds up a mirror to that contradiction.
The director mentions identity being forged in private spaces, not public ones. What does that mean for how we understand these two women?
It means that whatever power they wield in the world—matriarch, lawyer, whatever titles they carry—their real selves were shaped somewhere else, somewhere intimate. The play is asking: what happens when those private selves collide with the public personas they've built?
They're described as very different women who recognize themselves in each other. Isn't that contradictory?
Not really. Sometimes the people most unlike us are the ones who see us most clearly because they're not invested in the version of ourselves we've constructed. They see the cracks.
The play premiered in Madrid a year ago and has been touring. What does that longevity suggest?
That audiences keep coming back to it. It's not a one-off provocation. There's something in the work that resonates across different cities, different audiences. That's the mark of something that touches a nerve.
Is this ultimately a play about women, or about power?
It's about how power shapes women differently, and how two women shaped by power in different ways might finally understand each other—or fail to. The gender is inseparable from the power dynamic.