On stage, only two actors, Miki Esparbé and Maria RodrÃguez, who play the roles of Him and Her. “They come from two different worlds. She studied fine arts, painted graffiti and ended up working in a bank, and he dreams of being an actor and works as a delivery man.” This is explained by Marc Artigau, author and director of L’illa deserta, who tries to say something about the plot of this filigree comedy without smashing the guitar to the audience. “They meet in an elevator and we explore the what if…, and it’s a whole life explained to the public”.
This what if… is that reflection that everyone, at some point in life, has ended up doing: what if instead of studying this, he had studied this other; and if instead of falling in love with this person, I had fallen in love with this other… Throughout the play, we learn how the lives of these two characters could have been based on the options they had chosen .
It should be noted that Miki Esparbé and Maria RodrÃguez radiate an empathy that connects with the audience, which is often questioned, “because it is a text that is very well explained to the viewer”, emphasizes Artigau. RodrÃguez recognizes that it is “an interpretatively demanding text”, and Artigau is quick to add: “But it is not for the viewer”.
On this chemistry that the performers give off, Artigau declares: “They are two very generous actors and the theater demands a lot of generosity. They have wanted to play there from the beginning and I think it is one of the keys to history”. But Esparbé and MartÃnez had never worked together. “I knew them both and had the intuition that there would be a connection”, says the author and director, and it is worth saying, in view of the tests, that he got it right.
The idea began to be cooked in 2018, but the pandemic and the fact of having to fit the agendas of the whole team has meant that it has not been until now that it can be premiered in La Villarroel. Artigau confesses where the idea came from: “In 2018 I wrote the first ray. I fell very much in love and I wanted to write a work to contradict myself with this transitory illness, closely linked to adolescence. I wanted to write about how you can fall in love with one person, but you can also fall in love with another and life will be different, but it can also be good.”
The deserted island is about “the infatuations that happen and those that don’t happen; it speaks of coincidences, of chance, you meet a person who is in one moment and you are in another”, continues Artigau, and Esparbé adds: “The play speaks of the paths you take in life and of coinciding, as we have coincided with Maria We’re talking about something that happens to us at 15, or at 40 or at 60, so anyone of any age can feel identified with it.”
Marc Artigau (Barcelona, ​​1984) is the master orchestra of Catalan lyrics. If he who makes a cave makes a basket, he as a writer has explored all genres. Dramaturgy is one of them, as well as translations and theatrical adaptations. He has written poetry and radio listeners know him for the stories that have been broadcast on the program El món on RAC1. He has also written a few novels and, together with Jordi Basté, the dark stories of the researcher Albert MartÃnez.
L’illa deserta is a production of La Brutal, which “trusted it from the first moment”, declares David Selvas, who is the artistic director and production coordinator. It can be seen at La Villarroel until July 2nd and will go on tour next year.
