The María Guerrero Theater is currently hosting its first play: A basic manual of sign language to break hearts
He used a wheelchair since he was 14 years old when he suffered from congenital spinal atrophy.
The Canarian director, screenwriter, and producer Roberto Pérez Toledo has died at the age of 43 in Madrid, as confirmed by the Film Academy in a statement. His death has coincided with the performance these days of his first play From him, Basic manual of sign language to break hearts, at the María Guerrero Theater with a production by the National Dramatic Center.
The work, which has Enrique Cervantes and Carlos Soroa as protagonists, was scheduled to be performed in the Sala de la Princesa until February 13. It is a love story between two disabled boys. “It is a story about people, not about people with disabilities and without disabilities, where these two characters are going to discover that what separates them is not learning sign language, but rather being contradictory people,” Pérez Toledo pointed out before its premiere in statements collected by Europa Press.
Pérez Toledo had been in a wheelchair since he was 14 years old when he suffered congenital spinal atrophy. Through the cinema first, and recently the theater, the artist fought against the exclusion of disabled people like himself.
As explained by the Academy, the filmmaker planned to participate this Monday in a meeting that included the exhibition of his short films Overturn, Los gritones, RotosS, Sí a todo, Tris, Admirador secreto, Taras, Amor de autor, Siempre que lo cuento, Hidroalcohólico and Antes de la erupción.
He directed his first film ten years ago.
A native of Lanzarote, Pérez Toledo premiered Six Points on Emma in 2012, his first feature film as director and screenwriter, with which he won various awards. A year later he participated in the collective feature film Al final todos dien together with three other directors and a year later he launched the television movie Los Raros Amigos, which became a viral phenomenon on the network, where it accumulated more than 22 million visits.
In 2017, he released Like the foam, his third solo film. In addition, he has been the director and screenwriter of more than 40 short films. Recently, he created and directed Amor superdotado , the first Spanish fiction series for ‘Facebook Watch’, and shot the feature film Places we have never gone to.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.
