Circus language, live music, humor, and juggling converge with a thoughtful reflection on fear and desire for money. This award-winning show, created by Lucas Escobedo from Alicante in 2021, earned recognition as a finalist at the Max 2022 awards and received the Valencia Performing Arts Award for the best circus show.
Escobedo, the inventive mind behind the project, began to imagine a form where black text on white could carry the spoken word because after each performance many audience members asked to read the dialogue aloud. With an existing album of songs, the idea grew into a project that could publish the text itself. The ambition was to fuse word, image, and music into a single shared experience rather than presenting written text alone.
This moment became a real adventure. What started as a book evolved into a sensory skin that captures the audience’s emotions—money as a metaphor for value and risk, expressed through language and imagery as well as sound. The creators wanted the piece to be vivid and accessible, inviting readers and viewers to inhabit the same space as the performers.
more than a book
Editorial Reykjavik Editions welcomed the project, opening its doors to a study that centers on Spanish and Valencian theater. The book collects not only Lucas Escobedo’s text but also a curated selection of photographs by Gaby Merz, drawings by the designer Main Cordoba, and music by Rachel Molanow. The design includes a first page beside each theme’s score, accompanied by QR codes for readers to download and listen as they follow along.
There is a careful balance in the presentation. The creators aim for a memory-laden experience where letters and visuals evoke the moments and sensations of the theater as soon as the reader engages with the book. Readers who are new to the series should be able to understand the progression of the work, even without having seen the stage show. The book strives to mirror the richness of the theatrical production, offering a near-theatrical encounter through written pages and images.
Lucas Escobedo presents the book this evening at 18:00 in Ankara Valencia Rialto Theater, bringing the story from page to stage through a reading that resonates with the visuals and music that fans already know from the performance.