Sixto Paz brings us a one-man-show where the one man, Dafnis Balduz, lays bare the forces that shape and transform the lives of individuals neglected by society, as if they didn’t matter. Racism, homophobia, poverty... It’s all part of daily life for a working-class boy, as described in this acclaimed novel. The author, Édouard Louis, is a French writer and intellectual known for having found inspiration in his own life. In 2018, he published a novel in monologue format, the third instalment in a trilogy of autobiographical novels that have brought him fame and admiration in France. Following The End of Eddy, a brutally raw depiction of omnipresent homophobia and the bullying he experienced in school, and History of Violence, an account of the rape and attempted murder he survived in 2012, Who Killed My Father once again brings together reality and politics, this time through the character of Louis’ father, an alcoholic who has been in a wheelchair ever since he suffered a work accident. A visit to his father after a long absence prompts the author to look back on his family life and, through reflections that are unsparing yet sensitive, to explore how his father and so many others like him have been affected by socio-political conditions and cuts to social spending.

The director of the show is Pau Roca, an actor and director who created the Sixto Paz production company in 2013 and brought it to the Barcelona Grec Festival in 2017 (Tender Napalm), 2019 (Así bailan las putas [So Dance the Whores]), 2021 (Salvació total imminent immediata terrestre i col·lectiva [Collective Earthly Immediate Imminent Total Salvation]) and 2023 (Bèsties, [Beasts]). The sole performer onstage, taking on a particularly intense role, is Dafnis Balduz, a theatre, cinema and television actor whom we’ve seen recently in plays directed by Josep Maria Mestres (L’herència , based on Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance; and Guillem Clua’s L’oreneta [The Swallow], co-starring Emma Vilarasau), working on the big screen with Alejandro Amenábar in Mientras dure la guerra [seen in English as While at War], and in TV series such as La Mesías, directed by Javier Ambrosi and Javier Calvo, and Oriol Paulo’s Nit i dia.

Co-produced by Sixto Paz and Grec 2025 Festival de Barcelona.