Emma Vilarasau premieres the comedy Lali Symon at the Romea, the story of a stand-up comedy actress who, among her sarcastic monologues, has to take care of her mother, an older woman. She gave the initial idea to Sergi Belbel, who has put it on the spot, surprising everyone, her first.
Vilarasau explains how it all began: “I live an experience, long in time, that many of my friends are also living. Then I realize that it is not something personal, but rather a problem of this society, of what we do with the elderly. Residences are not what we want for our parents, and having them at home is complicated and you need a lot of money and time. Years ago that did not happen, because the women were already there, who took care of them. But now no one can take care of them.”
“I thought that this is not talked about – he continues -. The father, who is a man with Alzheimer’s, was made, but it is a very specific case, and I was looking for something more general. I wanted to talk about the relationship between mothers and daughters at this stage of life, which is difficult for them, because they see that time has run out for them, and that it is difficult for us, because you cannot dedicate all the time you would like to them. because you have a life that you cannot stop and you feel very guilty; a lot of things get mixed up.”
“Since I did not find any work that spoke of old age and who accompanies that old age, I thought that we would have to do it ourselves. I wanted both mother and daughter to have a voice, without it being a big drama. My mother is not this lady, Aurora, because she had to be someone who could be the mother of the whole world”.
And that’s when Sergi Belbel bought her the idea and suggested she play a stand-up comedy actress. “She fascinated me because she takes me out of my comfort zone, and I really liked her. What I did ask her is that she wanted her mother to speak, vindicate herself and complain, that she was very powerful ”. In fact, her mother, Mont Plans, takes center stage in the scenes between monologues, accompanied by Júlia Bonjoch, her granddaughter.
Vilarasau is satisfied with the result: “It’s what we were looking for. There are many things left to say, and for that a book would be needed, but what I wanted to explain has been synthesized quite well in a play. And I want to thank Sergi for allowing me to enter his laboratory and remove his work ”.
The actress has never done stand up and confesses that, from the outset, she was embarrassed: “I don’t know, but I also want to walk a tightrope and jump off the motorcycle. And if I annoy her, well, she looks, I will have annoyed her and nothing more than that will happen either. But she really wanted to play it ”.
“My character is not a typical stand-up, but rather a political and social activist, very feminist. She is cheeky, ironic, she is classy and very powerful. And when she comes home, she has what she has.” Vilarasau talks about masks: “We all wear one, and in the case of Lali Symon I have realized that, apart from the glasses and hair so as not to be her, her great mask is the microphone. She helps you a lot and gives you a lot of power. Now I have understood why many stand ups, especially Americans, go with the microphone in hand. I thought that if they could use a headset microphone, why did they choose the other one. And I have discovered that she gives power, she is a point of support ”.
“The work is a tribute to the women of this generation, because they could not choose. They were born during the war and a very hard postwar period. A woman was supposed to marry, have children and start a family. It was not expected that she would dedicate herself to anything else, and they could not even dream of it. And if she dreamed it, they couldn’t do it. Looking at it from now on, what has happened to them is very cruel. And today, although women work, they are also the ones who care for the elderly”.
Belbel has written this paper especially for Vilarasau, with an open text until the last moment. Lali Symon is a co-production of the Romea Theater and the Grec Festival and can be seen at the Hospital street theater from this Saturday until July 30.
Catalan version, here
