Activities to begin in March and include a show with performances throughout the archipelago, an exhibition, a book and a documentary
The Tenerife Island Council has scheduled the presentation of the project 40 Delirios, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Tenerife-based theatre company Delirium Teatro. The initiative, in association with Auditorio de Tenerife, includes activities such as round tables with theatre professionals, an exhibition on the company’s history, a book, a documentary about its work, and a show with performances throughout the archipelago entitled Libros cruzados (Crossed Books) by playwright Antonio Tabares.
The town council of Tacoronte and the Canary Islands Government have collaborated to program 40 Delirios, which will run from March to December. The initiative was announced in further detail earlier today (17 February) by the Councillor for Cultural Affairs, José Carlos Acha, the General Director of Cultural Innovation and Creative Industries, Cristóbal de la Rosa, the Tacoronte Mayor, Sandra Izquierdo, the Artistic Director of the Auditorio de Tenerife, José Luis Rivero, the representatives of Delirium, Severiano García and Soraya González del Rosario.
José Carlos Acha said, “This presentation is a platform for the announcement of something of great significance: 40 years of existence of Delirium Teatro and a homage to the effort, insistence, talent and dedication of the alliance of Severiano García and Soraya González del Rosario”. The councillor went on to say, “It’s quite an accomplishment for a theatre company to celebrate its 40th anniversary in a region like ours,” adding, “the sustained effort and enthusiasm that have gone into keeping a theatrical project going for 40 years is something to be proud of”.
The company’s director and founder, Severiano García, explained, “It’s been a lot of hard work, but here we are”. He said the purpose of the celebration is “to bring to light all of this love for theatre, to show what can be done with dedication and to share with you the things we’ve accomplished”. Concerning Libros cruzados, he praised the work of Tabares: “Antonio is a Canarian playwright and one of our most frequent collaborators, as this will be the eighth text of his that we’ve staged”. About the show, he said, “The project is a bold proposal involving six actors and six actresses”, and added that “it has to do with the love of books and how they can help us to survive”.
Soraya González del Rosario, actress and director of the company, stated that she was starting the year “on the right foot,” given her successful staging of Panza de burro at the Madrid-based theatre Teatro del Barrio (National Theatre Award 2024), which totalled nine sold-out performances. “Celebrating this 40 Delirios is like a dream come true because, for quite some time, we’ve wanted to stage Libros cruzados and take it to the Canary Islands, but it never would have happened without this institutional backing, which has been a key element in our success”, she said.
Tacoronte’s Mayor, Sandra Izquierdo, expressed her pride in participating in the anniversary. “My congratulations to the members of Delirium, a company that has long stood out in the world of theatre and whose track record includes some 30 projects that reflect the excellence of their work and that have been awarded and acknowledged in Spain and abroad. In Tacoronte, we are all very proud to have their work here, with its undeniable level of quality, as well as this new work, Libros cruzados, which we shall see for the first time in September”, she concluded.
José Luis Rivero stated, “We are all very proud to be working alongside the company in organising this project”. Delirium is the best-known theatre company in the archipelago and among the few in Spain that have been active for 40 years”. He went on to define the three main concepts behind the project: “the company’s history, with an exhibition, the publishing of a book and the release of a documentary; their awareness and reflection, which are important facets of Delirium, because they have always concerned themselves with the changing world around them—on this occasion, with the scheduling of sectorial round tables—; and staging, with Libros cruzados and performances scheduled in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Palma and La Gomera”.
Cristóbal de la Rosa, the General Director of the Regional Government, said about the project, “We thought it was a bold and complicated idea that would constantly run the risk of dividing audiences again. We were also impressed by the proposal’s Canarian values and the implicit message regarding new talent. We intend to do our part to promote this newly created work throughout the archipelago.
40 Delirios is an integral project celebrating Delirium Teatro’s 40th anniversary. It is designed to showcase the company’s 40 years of creativity for its fans and the institutions and artists that have worked with them over the last four decades. The project seeks to commemorate the company’s lengthy history throughout 2025, which is extraordinary in Spain. This will be a unique opportunity to highlight the company’s professional experience and show that artists can make a career of creativity and professional development in the Canary Islands.
To this end, a programme has been prepared to show the company’s history to the public through initiatives encouraging public involvement, contemporary playwriting, innovation, and theatrical research, along with activities that provide the public with information and encourage participation, such as round tables and discussions that seek to bring together the public and performing arts professionals.
The activities are to begin on 25 March at 7:30 p.m. with a round table in Tacoronte among representatives of other initiatives that, like Delirium Teatro, have been active for various decades, including the artistic foundry Bronzo, the footwear store Scorpio and the printing service Benahoare. The next day (26 March), the La Salita Hall of Auditorio de Tenerife will offer a conference on recently created and established companies at 7.30 p.m., with Mario Vega, Gaviera, Rosa Escrig y Cabaret Papaya hosted by Luis O’Malley.
On 27 March, coinciding with World Theatre Day, the opening ceremony of an exhibition on Delirium’s 40th anniversary will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the square Plaza de la Estación in Tacoronte. After the ceremony, this year’s manifesto will be read to the public, and there will be a live performance by 101 Brass Band and Aristides Moreno. In addition, students can attend the exhibition through organised visits in the following months.
March activities will conclude on Friday the 28th at 7.30 p.m. with a round table featuring the winners of Spanish theatrical awards, who will discuss the current state of the art. Invited speakers include theatrical directors Ana Belén Santiago and Andrés Lima, and the artistic director of Auditorio de Tenerife, José Luis Rivero, who will host the event.
Round tables on playwriting have been scheduled in April in Tacoronte and at La Salita, with guests Antonio Tabares and Conchita Piña. On 11 June at 7:30 p.m., the first reading of Tabares’ Libros cruzados will take place in the chamber music hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife, followed by a conference in which the public will be allowed to participate.
The premiere of the play Libros cruzados is to take place on 4 and 5 September at the Capitol Auditorium in Tacoronte. Subsequent performances of the show have been scheduled throughout the archipelago, starting on 12 and 13 September in La Palma and continuing on 26 and 27 September at Cuyás Theatre in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The La Salita Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife will offer an adapted version of Libros cruzados for an eight-show run between 10 and 19 October. Further performances are scheduled in Los Realejos, Adeje, Candelaria, Vecindario (Gran Canaria), La Gomera, and Fuerteventura. A presentation of the book 40 Delirios has been scheduled for November, and the documentary Delirium, 40 años de Teatro, will be released in December.
The design, execution and subsequent tour of Libros cruzados are conceived as a large-format theatrical show, with 12 actors interpreting over 20 characters, 19 distinct spaces and 16 persons on tour, all taking place in a complex production. The text of Tabares, the company’s habitual playwright, explains that this work was created to express the author’s love of books and his rumination regarding how much this love may influence or help people. With this idea in mind, Libros cruzados is about a book (Ana Karenina) passed from one person to another and three women who rethink their lives after reading it. For museum security guard Mariana, the story reflects her own life, which she feels is dull and senseless; novelist Patricia comes to question her profession and the sincerity of her relationship; and Cris finds consolation in the works of Tolstoy to deal with her pain.
Numerous works of Delirium Teatro have been awarded in Spain and abroad. They have been performed in the archipelago and at the exhibitions, fairs, and festivals of many countries, such as Portugal, Cuba, Cape Verde, Argentina, Colombia, Tunisia, and Venezuela, as well as the Spanish autonomous communities of Madrid, Andalusia, the Basque Country, Galicia, and Asturias.