As a La Calòrica playwright, Joan Yago writes many commissioned works, but from time to time he can allow himself to go it alone: ??“It is an opportunity that, luckily, I have had a few times in my life,” he declares. This is what happened to him with Entrevistes breus amb gifts exceptionals, a work that has been premiered abroad, in France and Quebec, but he had not yet done so in Barcelona. He now finally arrives at the TNC, directed by Mònica Bofill.
“Mònica came to find me to recover this piece – explains Yago –, which I did in 2016 or 2017. It was performed outside and I already considered it lost. We have rewritten it between the two of us, looking for what was missing.”
Who are these exceptional women? “It’s not easy to explain. They are fictional characters, based to varying degrees on real characters. The characters are different and different topics are touched on in each interview. Exceptional women are not historical figures, they are not Cleopatra. They are private characters, some are public, but they are not Beyoncé,” declares the playwright.
And what are they talking about? “Surely the main issue is the right to individual freedom, the right to live as each person wants,” he continues. It is neither a defense nor a criticism of individual freedoms, but rather a reflection. It is a complex work and also uncomfortable at times. It is political, but it does not have a single objective. It is not just one thing, it is a collection of many of the obsessions that pass through us right now as a society.”
The director adds: “The play does not give answers, but rather addresses these characters in all their complexity. In all interviews, no matter how far they are from you, there are moments in which we can empathize, even if we do not agree at all. Those moments of empathy shake what your ideological schemes are.”
On stage, six also exceptional actresses: Muntsa Alcañiz, Mònica Almirall, Anna Barrachina, Elisabet Casanovas, Miranda Gas and Yolanda Sikara. “With them we have worked from these characters in a hyper-realistic way, but since the text is by Joan, it is full of irony and humor,” explains Bofill, who recalls that the title “is a mirror of Foster Wallace’s text: Brief Interviews with repulsive men”.
Bofill sees “perhaps a common thread, which is the fact of publicly exposing intimate lives and what effect that has. How many times have we done random sampling with only men, thinking it was representative? Well, here we raise it with women.”
With a television format, which includes images, Yago acknowledges: “It came out very American, but talking about the United States is not the objective. Some of the characters were inspired by the television show My strange addiction. “The United States is twenty years ahead of us in the best and worst of all.”
The playwright concludes: “The play challenges empathy. Ahora bien, from my point of view, the play is very funny”. The artistic team of Short Interviews with Exceptional Women agrees with his opinion.