ANA DEL BARRIO Madrid
Madrid
Updated Thursday, March 7, 2024-13:28
More than a decade after leaving Els Joglars, the theater director returns to the company he founded with
El rey que fue
, an intimate portrait of Don Juan Carlos in exile, which is performed at the Teatro Infanta Isabel.
ASK.
What is that King like that he was?
ANSWER
.
It is a portrait of Don Juan Carlos's current moment in which I have tried to reflect what his intimacy could be.
He appears inside a schooner on a trip through the Persian Gulf with the intention of making paella.
It is something that is not new for him either because he has made some paellas in Abu Dhabi and he has complained that there was not what is put in the paella...
P.
Saffron?
A.
Yes, saffron.
And, from here, I confront a character who is a young man of today, as if he were a son or even a bastard, who breaks protocol and always tells him the 40. And in this game of protagonist-antagonist I allow the defense of the King.
Normally, the King finds it difficult to defend himself because he cannot go on television to hold a press conference.
And, at the same time, I place him in aspects that seem negative and uncivil to me.
That is the intention.
P.
Why have you directed this work?
A
There is a Shakespearean aspect to this man's life.
My colleagues from ancient times, such as Molière or Shakespeare, would have been enthusiastic about him as a dramatic subject.
His childhood, the accidental death of his younger brother at the hands of a gun, the 27 years spent with the dictator...
P.
In the life of the King Emeritus, are there more lights or shadows?
A.
There is a light that is the most blinding, which is someone who goes from having absolute power for 14 months to jumping to a democracy and a regime of freedoms after 40 years of dictatorship.
This is what will remain in History about Juan Carlos I. And, later, there are some very unpleasant shadows even for those of us who had great appreciation for him.
P.
Should the Emeritus King return now or will he be a hindrance to Felipe VI?
A.
His big mistake was leaving Spain.
He had to withstand the downpour.
There were some problems with the Treasury, which caused the possibility of a trial, but it is important that this man returns no matter what.
If he dies in exile, the stain on the current Monarchy will be important and the weight will fall on Felipe VI.
P.
Very few have dared to portray the figure of Don Juan Carlos on stage.
Has it caused you any problems with any administration?
A.
No, the only problem is hiring.
Nowadays censorship is not really through a Ministry of Information and Tourism, as in the time of the dictatorship, but in hiring.
There are places that don't want to know anything about the subject.
We proposed the play to the Spanish Theater in Madrid, which did not want to do it.
I also think that we offered it to Fernán Gómez and he didn't want it either.
So, we decided to go to the private company, where there have been no problems.
Now, we haven't censored ourselves at all.
P.
Would the King Emeritus like the work if he saw it?
A.
I think he would feel violent seeing her.
Contemplating a work about aspects of your life surrounded by 500 people is very hard.
I couldn't stand that either.
P.
The truth is that the current panorama is quite turbulent.
Would Puigdemont be a good character for any of his future works?
A.
No. I have only played two political characters: Pujol in the play
Ubú President
and Franco, in the film
Bon voyage, Excelencia
.
In both cases there was something about his personality that was attractive from a theatrical point of view.
Puigdemont is mediocre and has no dimension.
He is a gray man who, due to a series of insane circumstances in our politics, has been taking center stage.
But it would never occur to me to make a play about him.
P.
She doesn't deserve it, right?
A.
No. Jokes and parodies as you like, yes.
A play must be about a character, whether very evil or very benign or 50% of both.
P.
But the truth is that this fugitive from Justice has the country at his feet.
A.
Well, this is thanks to an unscrupulous guy who uses pure blackmail to maintain his power.
There are some impostors who have taken advantage of this circumstance to obtain votes in Parliament, but not because of their intelligence.
P.
And would you dedicate a piece to Pedro Sánchez or is he not up to the task?
R.
Pedro Sánchez is something else.
Pedro Sánchez means the symbol of amorality, let's say, which is a chemically pure amoral.
That thing he has of cynicism, of not caring about anything that may happen and that he simply thinks of himself... Maybe that is a man more representative of a part of our society.
A very important part of the Spaniards who vote for him do so because they are like him deep down.
There is a type of people in our time who can say white today and black tomorrow, without any problem, without any self-criticism and without any remorse.
He must be the idol of quite a few people.
P.
Well, now he has a problem with Jose Luis Ábalos.
A.
That's natural because when you always go about your business, there comes a day when you start to accumulate disasters, right?
It is logical.
It may have taken away an hour of sleep, but within a week he will be sleeping soundly.
P.
You are a plague in Catalonia and a hero in Madrid.
A.
Well, since I am not a masochist, I always try to walk around Madrid and walk very little in Catalonia.
In Catalonia, from a theatrical point of view, I do absolutely nothing.
I do everything in Madrid or other parts of Spain.
Catalonia has entered a drift that I could never have imagined.
Anyone who has opposed this madness is persona non grata.
I continue to live in Empordà because what I have not wanted is to be kicked out and have to leave by force, but I simply live there.
Nothing else.
Sometimes I do fun parody things with everything about Tabarnia.
But nothing serious.
P.
What is his relationship with Isabel Díaz Ayuso like?
A.
Very good since I met her a few years ago.
She seems to me to be a woman with great values.
She is really unusual in many things and funny in many others.
There is always a certain humor behind the things she does.
I believe that she is also a hope in politics, given what we currently have in the opposition.
Let's say that the opposition to Mr. Sánchez is an opposition that has problems, that has not fully convinced and that has not yet fully excited.
That is the essential problem.
P.
Do you think she would make the opposition better than the current PP leader?
A.
If she had found herself in the situation of being a candidate, I think she would do better.
At the very least, I'm sure it would excite and show people a certain passion.
Because she faces it directly, face-to-face and openly.
That gives people a certain confidence.
There are no lukewarm attitudes.
P.
So, do you consider that Ayuso is more exciting than Feijóo, who is more lukewarm?
A.
Yes. I have the impression that Feijóo is a good person.
He is a man who will surely end up being President of the Government, but not because of the illusion that he creates, but because of the political circumstances.
On the other hand, Ayuso's case is different.
If instead of being in the Community of Madrid, he had entered in another way, he would surely be a woman who would create more hope and more excitement.
P.
Furthermore, now Madrid is experiencing a moment of splendor while Barcelona seems to be in decline.
A.
Barcelona has suffered decline due to nationalism, which has sunk Barcelona.
That is scientific and verifiable.
It has undone it as a city.
The possibilities of this city 20 or 30 years ago were much greater.
But they have even fired La Caixa!
It is a nationalism that is self-destructive, that is, it has destroyed the coexistence of Catalonia and has dealt an impressive blow to the economy of Catalonia.
It's a catastrophe.
It is the complete opposite of Madrid, which is a city with an overwhelming momentum.
P.
Currently, you are one of the six artistic directors of the Teatros del Canal in Madrid, specialized in opera.
A.
I have a small responsibility in the programming of the Teatros del Canal, which are no strangers to me because I spent eight years directing them.
It is a very dear place to me, honestly.
I really like the world of poetry.
I left Els Joglars because I wanted to get rid of this frustration of doing things with music, with singers and an orchestra.
It is a world that I like because it is where art is deeper and purer.
The word with music has an emotional potential that the word itself does not have.
P.
He brags that he likes having enemies.
Which are the worst?
A.
The ones you don't see.
These are the most dangerous.
They are invisible.
More than enemies, I like to have opponents.
I'm fine with these things.
For example, I'm doing a play and criticism starts to come out that makes me giddy.
There are people who are overwhelmed by this.
On the other hand, for me it is a challenge.
I have been of a very warrior spirit.
P.
What is the key to Els Joglars being the longest-running private theater company in Europe?
A.
It is a company created in difficulty.
Els Joglars was born in the year 61, well imagine from the year 61 to the year 75 that Franco died, the company was under enormous difficulties of all kinds: expression, economic... That causes there to be a kind of dynamic in the company and that people feel very linked and united in a common goal.
I always had great loyalty to the company.
They proposed things to me abroad and I did not accept them, even though they were very interesting.
There was a kind of loyalty contract between each other.
Over the years, that creates a kind of school and dynamic and a way of understanding theater and doing things.
P.
Who did you learn the trade from the most?
A.
Well, I have learned from great theater masters like Peter Brook.
I have also learned a lot from Beethoven and Schubert, from great painters and great poets.
That is to say, when you are in an art, not only do the greats of that art teach you, but the other arts also teach you.
For example, I have learned the sense of time and rhythm above all from Beethoven by studying a lot how he places the beats, which is a way that has to do with the guts and the most primary impulses.
And then what you have to do is look.
The look.
The artist's perspective is very important, how you look and select things.
P.
Do you remember any lies?
R.
On my part?
P.
Yeah.
R.
Or is it some lie that I have told?
P.
Yeah.
A. Quite
a few.
It would be difficult to remember them.
I am a 100% union man.
I'm a rogue.
Picaresque is the basis of my guild.
Yes, it is true that I have touched an incorruptible ethical line in what is my profession, but in order to achieve this, I have had to do a lot of picaresque and a lot of comedy.
P.
What is it referring to?
A.
Many times I have had to swallow toads and put on a friendly face when I shouldn't have done so.
When I was director of Els Joglars I ran a company and was responsible for 25 payrolls.
Therefore, I had to ensure that, at the end of the month, everyone got paid.
And that sometimes requires certain renunciations, that is, those things that one would like to say.
I have tried not to cut myself too much, but, at times, I have had to give in.
My life is not that of a saint.
P.
What has been the hardest moment of your existence?
A.
When they put me in jail and I had to go into exile.
Above all, because I had just met and started living with the woman who is still my wife.
Being separated from that woman was horrible.
I would have killed to get to be with her again.
Deep down it was a love problem.
P.
Over the years, does one become immune to all sins?
A.
In my case, it is the other way around.
I have become more scrupulous and more hypersensitive about many things when I used to spend more of them.
P.
How do you learn to grow old?
A.
You don't learn it, you find it.
There is a day when you realize.
If you are in good health, it is more difficult for you because there is the trap that you can still do things you did when you were 30 years old.
I haven't realized that I'm 80 years old.
I have not heard.
It has happened to me, my life has happened to me.
When you have children and grandchildren you start to think about the countdown.
One day you think about where you would like to be buried;
another day when you hope to die before the love of your life... When you start thinking about those things, well, that's it, you've already reached old age.
Sometimes it confuses you knowing that people applaud what you do, they like it and they enjoy it.
I can still communicate with the new generations.
Then, only when you look in the mirror do you put your feet back on the ground.
P.
Frank Sinatra's is "the best is yet to come."
What would be his epitaph?
A.
I have never thought about it.
But in any case since it is a grave, I would say: "What the hell are you looking at?"
[Laughs]