He doesn’t like posing for photos, but when it’s time to take them he submits to it with all the professionalism. She also doesn’t really like addressing the audience, like she does in the play La nostra ciutat, where she plays the role of the narrator, but no one would say it. “I like the give and take of the dialogues more, but this role is very nice. She has a part like explaining a story, which begins very gently and ends with a bang.”
We are at the Teatre Lliure de Montjuïc, where the actress stars in the play by North American Thornton Wilder (1897-1975), set in a rural town, directed by Ferran Utzet, with dramaturgy by Llàtzer Garcia. It is a captivating piece that, although it was released almost ninety years ago, is a classic full of modernity and innovative solutions for the 1930s.
“My character is not exactly known if he is a narrator, a demiurge or a theater councilor, because the play is also a tribute to the theater,” explains the actress, who occasionally plays a supporting character. She affirms that she belongs and not to the community, so she has like one foot in and one foot out. Sometimes I think she could be a granddaughter of one of the protagonists.”
The relevance of the work is one of the outstanding elements of this production. “We say it is modern, even though it was released in 1938! It is very groundbreaking, because it has magnetism, magic. Pure theater always has something poetic, and I think that is what engages, because there are no great actions, life happens. The author shunned such realistic theater and wanted to do something different. It was a world that was changing, with fierce capitalism and harsh conservatism, and now that is again present in our society.”
The audience celebrates the end of the play with lots of applause (without wanting to smash anyone’s guitar, it must be said that the third act is very surprising), but Renom remarks: “I find the reaction of the young people very curious. We older people have seen more theater or more things and perhaps it doesn’t surprise us as much, but young people are very moved by it and that has surprised us very pleasantly. They are young and perhaps they don’t think so much about death, and this work makes you think: if we take advantage of life enough, if we don’t look at each other enough, if we are or are not for what we have to be… .”.
The actress also highlights the performance of Rosa Boladeras and Mercè Pons, the two housewives in their neighboring homes: “Look, I have seen them many times and the magnetism of their movements still captures me. Or the magic of children, who play with things that aren’t there but that they create.”
“In dramaturgy, Llàtzer Garcia has dusted off some things, but Ferran Utzet has done a very careful and very faithful direction,” says the actress, who considers that “the work is not intended to be a moral lesson, but rather a reflection of life to think about.” ”.
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The actress has just started rehearsals for another play, a project in which she has a lot to do with. This is the production that Jordi Boixaderas, directed by Mario Gas, will represent based on the correspondence of the actress María Casares and the writer Albert Camus. “They are two extraordinary characters, with a very brutal relationship, very beautiful and very special for the time,” says Renom, who created the drama.
Casares-Camus: una història d’amor will premiere in Salt on December 2 and 3, within the High Season, and later it can be seen at the Teatre Lliure, which co-produces it with the Girona festival.
Catalan version, here
