They interviewed 210 Canarian grandmothers and turned it into a show: 'Matria' at the Jameos del Agua

Five years of work and two hundred and ten grandmothers interviewed. That is not the abstract of a thesis: it is how Matria came about, the show the group Caracolas brings to the Jameos del Agua on Saturday 24 October at 8pm.

Where it comes from

The starting point was long, patient research: gathering the stories of the older women of the islands, one by one, and listening to them. Two hundred and ten voices, carrying what they saw, how they worked, what was lost and what remained.

Out of those interviews came a show that sets traditional music in conversation with contemporary sound — and that, rather than celebrating the past, tries to hand it on to whoever comes next.

Why the venue matters

It is no small thing that this happens at the Jameos. The auditorium is carved inside a lava tube: volcanic rock walls, natural acoustics, nothing an architect ever built resembles it. Putting the voices of two hundred and ten women telling the island's story inside that space is a decision you feel before a note is played.

Practical details

Saturday 24 October, 8pm, the auditorium at the Jameos del Agua, Haría.

Tickets are selling fast: the auditorium is not large and this is the kind of evening that fills by word of mouth on this island. If you want to go, now is when you book, not next week.