The Madrid actress plunges into the controversial world of paid sex in 'Prostitution'
Abolition, legalization, cultural and religious prejudices, political and economic interests ... Prostitution is a socially transversal issue that the playwright Andrés Lima addresses in a theatrical, musical and documentary show at the Spanish Theater, the result of more than a year of research in which her interpreters, Carmen Machi , Carolina Yuste and Nathalie Poza (Madrid, 1972) have also been involved, to which a doubt raised by a prostitute when preparing the role marked her: «Why dignity cannot be in our hands?
How do you live from within to face a subject with so many edges? We start from a search process. Andrés has confessed to us that for years he wanted to make an approach and it has been a very deep job. It is still very revealing. Honestly, I could not tell you yet what my position on prostitution would be regarding the most political or controversial part, which is almost what we are most asked: if we are in favor of regularization or abolition. What we have set out, in a blunt way, is to give voice to some women we have met or that we have read, in the case of Virginie Despentes and Amelia Tiganus, a well-known activist and pro-abolitionist. We have been in the Marconi polygon, we have approached clubs, we have met some escorts and madames ... All the voices that appear in the function are real. The texts are taken from reality. And the speeches of Despentes and Tiganus, which seem contrary, are complementary. We give them a voice and it is the spectator who must have the experience that we are living: put ourselves in his place, get in his heels and leave the theater with the most open mind. Do you think prostitution about morally separated positions? Deep down it's like everything in life. When you think you know something, when you dogmatize, you usually lose your mind and close a lot. I confess that at the beginning I had my tribulations because it is a subject that affects you. There seems to be nothing behind the stigma of being called a "prostitute." Or "whore", which is what is most used in the function, because it is what is most said. What happens behind each individual, each chapero? When you meet the person in each voice, everything changes. That happens on all planes of life. And as an actress I don't even tell you! It happens to me constantly when I put myself in the shoes of a character ... And here we talk a lot about heels, because we don't get off on the whole function and it's a subject that is also hard to wear. I imagine that the ankles suffer ... And the backs! They give you a lot of courage, because you have to get on them. It's one of the things that shocked me the most when I met them. They are soldiers, they wear a hard-to-maintain uniform for many hours. Not only do I mean heels, but also women who are half naked in the streets, cold and hot. That is what has removed us the most: preconceived ideas change a lot when you talk to them, because all of the circumstances of each one. We do not know his past or his trauma, or his needs, or his person. Behind every whore is a woman, and that is what we forget. For me it has been a very revealing experiment. Because the stigma of the word "whore," that neon sign, is falling and women appear. Every time I feel more in his skin and I feel more like sharing it. I know them and I feel them better, and somehow that is what one wants to achieve: give them a voice in the most honest way, which is also what they asked us. One of the great phrases, taken from their voices, is: "I do not sell my body, but always carry it with me." That is, each one decides how they want to live with their body. But we want to make this very clear: one thing is prostitution and another is exploitation and trafficking, which is something that must clearly be fought and that should be eradicated. That they themselves have very clear. The problem is how we get it in a country that moves five million euros a day. In Spain, it is estimated that 60% of the prostitutes there began to be sexually exploited before coming of age. Trafficking is separate, let's say there are two planes. It must be eradicated, it is something serious. The problem is how it is done. And in that, what we can say as actresses is that if politically and socially this has not been achieved, from the theater we can only give voice to the women we have met and among all give it a little more light. On the other hand, it is a work. We want to do something theatrical and that gives the spectator much pleasure. Or at least move it. We have had an extraordinary team and the assembly also has a musical part. We are very close to the public, the central axis is a gateway illuminated masterfully by Valentín Álvarez. The prostitutes constantly parade through that place, in a more or less tragic way, in a repetitive way to reflect the places where we have seen them work in a more enslaved way, as in the street, doing services every 10 minutes ... It also evokes other gateways that They confess that they would like to live. And we have cabaret, magazine, rock and roll ... We mix many genres and we want the piece to take theatrical flight, with drama and humor.Do you face the 'documentary theater' differently from fiction? I think it is all about same. I do not know. I wouldn't know how to tell you ... I think our work is the same. There is always a special connection because you have known some, because you know they exist. You face it with respect and delicacy. But there also has to be something theatrical. To give you an example, there is a much more natural scene when facing it artistically because it is a literally transcribed interview of reality because it is an interview that Carmen Machi did to a prostitute we met in Marconi, which I interpret. That is more naturalistic, but then there are different styles, as with the discourse of Despentes and Tiganus, which start with music reminiscent of the cabaret ... We start from places that bring it closer to the theatrical event. That is Andrés' bet and it gives him a lot of beauty, a specific particularity. But the way to face it has to be the same, you have to put the same soul. The desire for respect for their dignity exists. We have taken a lot of love to all of them.Data of interest
What: Prostitution. Where: Spanish Theater (Prince, 25. Madrid). When: until February 23, 2020.
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