A gentleman walking down the street unnoticed has a civilized demeanor. Peter Casablanca (Casablanca, 1963) is one of the most important actors of this period in Spain and Europe. Then when she takes the stage, she doesn’t stop being herself, but she’s already someone else or someone else like this time. go out to the tables Spanish Theater being, almost simultaneously, Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Don Ramón María del Valle Inclan, In the performance directed by Xavier Albertí and accompanied by a solo pianist, Mario Molinaduring the performance, which, along with the music, contributed to a shout: “Disgusting!”
The monocle is there, a fetish. It was as if that Ramón object and the white gloves, yet another fetish of the great caricature of the first half of the 20th century, gave him the personality he needed to be Valle’s biographer on stage. With these objects in his hands, Casablanc suddenly turns into a writer, a biographer, and at the same time a spectator who enjoys listening to his song or watching his dance as if he has been playing the same character (the same characters) for a century. . .
When we went to see him, the people in the theater started laughing at the play that Ramón made all these figures in his text.but Casablanc also drew them into the serious part, which contained this singular memorable book, the theatrical translation of which took a little over an hour. that the author, the actor and the work seem to have been born together?
We spoke with Casablanc at the Santo Mauro hotel in Madrid about his interpretation and the way he saw the theater he did. He came with his wife, dressed in dark clothes, a briefcase with papers, and a monocle similar to the one he used in the performance. sara illa, actress too. Before we spoke, he told us that his twelve-year-old son, Unax, already knew many of the roles his father represented, as he had heard them rehearsing at home. The boy already knows his father’s life for each of the characters he represents, and the other languages he has had to use in his various characterizations imitate him, even in other languages. Due to this coincidence, we started the conversation, as it is here, from the very beginning until we said goodbye.
Q. Who are you now? Not only on the spot, but also as a citizen..
r. I can’t say that you are a normal person. Because normal is already getting into the wrong. I believe that I am a family man, wife, bourgeois gentleman who misses his home and family environment, loves his job, likes to be known for what he does on stage, and dislikes it. Showing her privacy, loving to take shelter in books, my family affairs and… Enough.
Q. Which of the fictional characters you lived with and that your son now reminds you of… which helped you most to understand what was going on in this life?
r. A lot. I have lived with many people and my family because they have to put up with me while they are in the process of creating or rehearsing. Fortunately, my life partner is my accomplice, because she is also an actress and helps me … According to what I have read about Valle-Inclan and Gómez de la Serna, a little Valle-Inclan at home and a little Gómez de la Serna because in the Spanish Theater I am constantly reviewing the text I represent. My son is listening to me and I think he already knows tarantulaHahaha…[que él canta en varios episodios de la representación]. when i make a movie called Private life, by Josep María de Sagarra, my son was very young but he came to learn about my text and also what it says in Catalan. Then of course some characters stay with me. For example Valle Inclan. i did it in 89 sharpenerthen i did Cruel Flagslater barbarian comedies… So Valle Inclan is very involved in my life and the way I understand art, poetry and literature.
I don’t like making masks, I like to capture the essence of the character and that’s how I mix their essence with mine. I’m not an actor who loves himself on stage, I try to hide but… I always show up”
What do you have about S. Valle-Inclan and Gómez de la Serna? What does it add to the characters?
r. Too much. Because there is already an age that a person cannot give up on his own age. I think these characters will add a lot to me now. The material you work with is your body, your voice, your soul… And so you don’t hide behind a mask. I don’t like making masks, I like to capture the essence of the character and that’s how I mix their essence with mine. I’m not an actor who loves himself on stage, I try to hide it but… I always show up. [risas].
Q. What confirms you as an actor and as an individual?
r. Experience as an actor. Fortunately I did not stop working, I always had many projects with very valuable professionals who taught me a lot. And as a human being… The truth is that I am a very empty person, an empty glass that needs to be filled with the content of the character or the work you do, as Vittorio Gassman said. I don’t know if this helps me become a better player. Maybe.
There is humanity in the work and there is an interest in culture in that bastion of beings who took the stage and are missed today. Now these people’s meetings have been reduced to a press conference and that’s it, right? What envy of that time!”
S. In this work, he describes an interwar event that was difficult to experience and can now be difficult to interpret. How did you feel when you read the text?
r. It’s a complicated time indeed, but what we’re going through right now is also complicated, huh. What happens is that there is humanity in the part of the play, and there is an interest in culture in the bastion of those beings that came onto the scene and are overlooked today. Now these people’s meetings have been reduced to a press conference and that’s it, right? What envy of that time! I had a grandmother who was a national teacher, from Granada and studied Lorca, and she was the one who introduced me to the world of culture, but… it’s not the same today. I don’t see much interest in culture in people.
Q. Two characters don’t stop you from being yourself in both…
r. Right, I told you before. I had a very emotional mother and a very logical father, and these two things got mixed up in me. What happened to my mother was so volcanic that it had to come from somewhere. What about my father holding the reins for me? It should not be opened in the canal, the public should come to you. I don’t mean to be harassing but… I don’t know what I’m talking about!
Q. Because I want to ask how you prepared the identity of the two characters you made yourself..
r. Since I already knew the characters, I prepared them with great enthusiasm. Also in anticipation, because she was going to do something she had never done before on stage: singing. But I like the idea of having to sing, huh. The character of Gómez de la Serna gives you tremendous creative freedom, and it seemed to me that I had the opportunity to appreciate him. He had the soul of an actor and playwright, and was also a great writer. Representing Valle Inclan without cartooning seemed like a really good challenge. Because you had to try not to wear a mask, but to reveal the spirit of the character.
Q. How do you get an alien spirit?
r. This is done on stage every day. About progress. You shouldn’t think about it, you should. You imagine what the character is like, you use your imagination, you experience it through emotions, and then the spirit of the character and the need to reflect it rises within you. Valle Inclan, for example, has a certain arrogance. You think about it, and so it only comes out when you think about it. But that has little to do with rehearsals, you do it on stage every day.
Q. How do you feel when the public applauds you?
r. very satisfaction. I thank you from spirit and spirit.
Q. You are not only interpreting characters but also a period.
r. Yes, the theater itself gives you that. El Español is a theater where Valle Inclan, Lorca and Echegaray go through… So empathizing with the place helps you a lot. So I go on stage and try to reclaim the energy that all these people left there.
Q. So what inspires you this time today?
r. Not very happy. I don’t want to be pessimistic, but… Look: I was playing a play here when Spain won the World Cup, and I came out of the theater and saw some crazy people hanging Spanish flags around the poet’s neck at the head of Lorca’s statue. I almost had a heart attack. What nostalgia for the past! These times are better, we’ve made more progress in many ways, no doubt, but you see the world around you made of so much plastic, so consumer… you say: what dehumanization!
I agree with this contemplation with the lightness that these characters have, the Olympism of seeing things outside of time and space, with a certain ironic, playful, and light look.
Q. How do you interpret the attitude of these two characters who join you now in Spanish?
r. I agree with them on this contemplation with that lightness they have, the Olympism of seeing things outside of time and space, with a certain ironic, playful, and light look. So it was relatively easy for me to interpret them on stage. Because I understand them very well.
Q. What did monocle gain you?
r. To look at things with that lightness I told you about, to see everything with the deformation of glass, to see everything with a certain creative, literary or theatrical intent.