Cain and Abel talk. They fight And they wait. But not to Godot , but to Tatita, the grandfather, God. This is how Mauricio Kartun (San Martín, 1946) conceived the approach of 'Terrenal. Little Aracic Mystery ', a review of the biblical myth passed by the theater of the absurd that since its premiere in 2014 has become a phenomenon within that other phenomenon that is the theater in Argentina. Master of other illustrious theatrical 'argentos' as Claudio Tolcachir, Kartun is a key figure to understand the scenic hyperpower of the Southern Cone. After his fleeting time at the Fall Festival in 2017, the Abbey Theater brings back 'Terrenal' to Madrid, with Claudio Martínez Bel, Claudio Da Passano and Rafael Bruza as the leading trio and director of Kartun himself.

"I see art as one of the few alternatives that humans have always had to look at us outside the conceptual web that we live in," says the playwright with that somewhat lunfardo Spanish that sets the rhythm of 'Terrenal'. "To stretch our arms outside for a while before they are twisted again. What others do we have? Religion, perhaps, if we are able to accept without snorting his ecstatic proposal; philosophy, which is difficult to agree, or psychoanalysis perhaps, that is its door to door version, but it is expensive. " For him, "art is the ever sacred field of revelation . Of course, who said that revelation was coming in jets, but there is no other similar mechanism to breathe out of the barrel."

More than with Beckett, Kartun wants to be compared to another closer figure. "I am 'valleinclanista' barrabrava" , sentence. "Valle is much more than an absurdist. He did not need to absurdize life, ridicule it, to laugh at its unreasonableness, he found in it the colors with which to distance it enough from within itself. What he has done is precious." And he points out that in very few authors he has found the living presence of the contemporary as in him. "And at the time of writing I feel like the creepy coat, and I never doubt where it comes from."

Kartun says he chose Cain and Abel "because they were once the metaphor of the confrontation between the two great archetypes: the sedentary and the nomadic. And from there the Bible took them . " The centuries pass, he reflects, "and that confrontation remains the basic political duality: the one who loses his life accumulating and the one who tries to enjoy it lightly in luggage."

They also represent for him the starting point of that so human: the conflict. "I believe in the God of dialectics," proclaims the playwright. "Something like that speaks 'Earthly'. I think the two fighting is life. And that the one alone, instead, grows monster . There have been no bigger political monstrosities than those generated by a society willing to cancel the possibility of internal struggle Those of the peace of the cemeteries ".

"Without a fight," says Kartun, "we would continue to work 15 hours a day from Monday to Saturday. Without a fight, women would not vote. Not everything else. In a compromise society, the powerful would continue to win every transaction, every agreement. The powerful yes they would be happy without that conflict. " But he clarifies: "I talk about fighting, fighting, protesting, not resentment, or resentment, which are its smelly version, the fermented in confinement. The sick resentment, the healthy fight, " he insists. "That's why joining the social claim is so healthy. It's not just a means, it's also an end."

"Art and anarchism are separate brothers at birth"

Hence his reflection in the work on anarchism, "the zero degree of political purity," according to his words. "So ideal," he says, "that operates many times flying a few meters above the ground." But that "does not take it away from reality, quite the opposite: it allows us to look at it without the visual contamination of our contradictions, of our mediocre daily negotiations. Its function among us is especially poetic. The libertarian view is to politics what art to the life". And even more: "Art and anarchism are separate brothers at birth."

Hence, in his works the political has so many readings. "It is politics that comes from ideas and not vice versa," says Kartun. That is why he sees his country as a great scenario: "Theater is always an act of excess. Always the result of a deformed or colossal optics. And for colossal deformities, Argentina . I always work with myths because I value them as an intelligent story. I look to history as to a quarry of myths. And in the national production of them is so extraordinary, so flowery, that there is no way to not feel playwright here. "

Hence also that, from this Macri era that is being lived, extract a reflection. "Rabies has always been an extraordinary creative energy," he starts to regret later, "but here, not even for rage, he has given, for depression barely, the decline of a country in the hands of some high-class boys and blue suits , who see to the world as a company and its managers believe themselves. And the saddest thing of all is that managing also makes them horrible. "

And, again, from there, his skepticism about relations with the system. "The power - if it incorporates us - requires artists for only two functions: shepherds or executioners . Spreading their ideas or punishing those who do not believe in them." It would be then "not to enter, to find that alternative space from which to grow outside. Or, duck your head, eat sushi in your armchairs and resign," he laughs. "Apocalyptic and integrated there has always been."

Of course, you will always have your faith in the word. "The bigger the lexical nebula, the more powerful and necessary the power of eloquence," says Kartun. "When the word names the ineffable, the sky suddenly clears. I believe in the word as in the key . I experience it daily in my work as a teacher and in my work as a director. She is the great organizer."

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