After the smashing success of Lorca’s jewel ‘A Moonless Night’, theater director and actor Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Madrid, 1975) manages Steffano Massini’s (‘Lehman Trilogy’) ‘Ladies Football Club’ with Juan Diego Botto and adapts. Programmed at 7:30 p.m. on 17 and 18 March by the Cuyás Theater, which tells the origin story of women’s football in England during the First World War in a musical key.
How did you come up with the idea to adapt the secret history of the narrative feminist revolution for the stage? Women’s Football Club?
since we got on Lehman Trilogy I maintain an e-mail relationship with the author, Steffano Massini, who sent the works to me when I was finishing them. And it caught my attention in a study package he sent me. Ladies. In general, his works tend to talk about the blind spots of history: stories that are not told or transcended, always very deeply. Bretci, approaching every story as if it were a great fairy tale. Then, just as in his time, I was amazed at the way he described capitalism. Lehman Trilogy, The story of these women, who were the heroes of their time, dominated the front pages of the newspapers, filled the stadiums, and above all, unaware of them today, as if covered with an earthen cloak, impressed me a lot. No one knew of its existence.
Why did you decide to turn this four-hour monologue into a choral work with at least 11 actresses?
Getting 11 women on stage seemed like a great goal (laughs). It doesn’t exist because it’s not common, because there isn’t any work for women, and because it wasn’t written, it’s that simple and cruel. So this opportunity looked great to me. I knew it was risky to tell it that way, because it’s a very expensive production with 11 actors in one scene and it’s very difficult to carry, but both my partner Nuria and I thought it was an exciting story, if we liked it why? The public would not like it. That’s what we went for.
Their projects often include a distinctive critical view or social claim. follow with button bretchanaIs theater always political?
Undoubtedly, all theater is political. Anacleto is getting divorced it is also political. Any artistic expression carries a point of view as it can lead to booklet, either omitted or in the opposite pole. I try to avoid writing pamphlets, but frankly, I always try not to be quiet about what I think or feel about the current moment I’m living. In general, I am addicted to stories that talk about what happened. And then those who talk about what happened to me. my montage Continuity of Parks, For example, a story that talks about encounters, disagreements, and more that falls into my most personal space. But as in this case Lehman Trilogy, It’s a story that tells about something that happened, and moreover, is a faithful reflection of what happened today, as if someone once threw a bottle into the sea and delivered a message that reached the shore twice today. And then the way you approach it always carries a very important gameplay element. Whether they are political works or for the purpose of connecting with reality, even if my children do not understand what the story is about, I always try this if they like or are interested in what they see on stage. In that sense, bringing these two elements together is too much for our production company, Barco Pirata, because it’s almost our label. And then it’s really a gift that they like it, go on tour, and have people stand up at the end of the show, because for me the main purpose of theater is to tell a story that I have to tell.
Absolutely, homage to the beautiful Lorca a moonless night It became a unanimous theatrical event even among the most conservative. How does this happen?
Well, I don’t know how to explain this. What I know is when we lock ourselves up to make a moonless night we were going with the sheet This is an invisible part of the worldthis was also a great success. I can even say that we are not under the long shadow of the previous production with this last one. But for a moonless night To Steffano Massino, as well as to my other main writer, Juan Diego Botto, I locked myself in the same modesty that we locked ourselves into before: telling a single-player or multiple-player story with simple montage, and trying to tell a story that we both understand is necessary because it’s the Spain we live in. It talks about our past and our present, and we won’t be until we acknowledge that some of our history is still buried in the gutters of Spain. to project ourselves into a free and honest future. Therefore, today we remain a divided, warring Spain that has a lot to do with the fact that we are not at peace with our history.
and it comes back Women’s Football Club And over time, could you say that the messages in the bottle, the macho resistances that the work describes are similar to those that are now emerging in the face of feminist developments?
Admittedly, in fact, it is surprising that we have progressed so little and in so many years. That’s one of the reasons why it makes so much sense to do this production with 11 women, not only because it’s a true story that has never been told, but also because it has resounding resonances with the actresses themselves today. For example, regarding the lack of work, they suddenly stop being called, or become mothers and no longer exist, or they are over 40 and an actress is no longer interested. Suddenly, the power of telling this story settled into what transcended the story itself, what happened in the rehearsal room, the stories each brought, not just the personal ones, but also the stories of their grandparents. the grandmothers of the boys and ours who are part of this creative process. After all, a play is a journey in which one must try to find lasting echoes of what is going on. And as we progressed through the creation of this story, we discovered that it couldn’t make more sense to tell that story right now: war broke out in Ukraine, football player Alexia Putellas won a Ballon d’Or and an audience record. because a women’s match was broken. In short, they are synchronicities that happen and happen when theater is made.
And in terms of theater directing, do you transform after each trip?
Definitely. Also, as a director, my job is the first one and the main process for me is why I want to tell this story, or rather why I want to tell it. Each function is an initial journey through which I will see each other with this story and above all this piece of me that I want to illuminate. Also, as a director, I’m very interested in the eco-theatrical perspective: a great production with very basic tools, where almost all of the blockbusters happen in the mind of the viewer. We propose a language and almost all the work is done by the person sitting on the couch, which for me is theatre. Theater with a lot of media interests me less and the more it evokes, the more interesting it is. If I want to cook more, I go to the movies, they take me close up. dolby surround and that they told me the story from beginning to end. But I think theater has a very important magical component, which is to allow the audience to complete the story.