Lluís Pasqual (Reus, 1951) received the Corral de Comedias prize on Thursday, the great award of the Almagro International Classical Theater Festival, in which he participated from the beginning, four decades ago, with mythical titles such as La hija del aire , with Ana Belén and a newcomer Antonio Banderas. A version of the classic with which he appeared before the critics saying “Calderón is me” and causing rashes. After the laudatios of Núria Espert and the journalist Rosana Torres, the co-founder of the Teatre Lliure received the award in front of the minister Miquel Iceta with an emotional speech and a final memory of Rosa María Sardà, with whom the last photo he has is in the fabulous Corral de Comedias of the city of La Mancha.
He was excited to collect the award. What does it symbolize for you?
Núria Espert and Rosana Torres moved me. The award for the race is something very strange, but the award phrase, despite being bombastic, because it says that I am a bridge between tradition and modernity, I like it, because one feels like a link in a chain. I have learned from many people, from José Bódalo, whom I saw in Romance de lobos when I was nine years old, from Fernán Gómez, who premiered his work in Reus and I spent a few days with him… I have been lucky enough to be able to get hooked on a tradition very good. I held someone’s hand to learn and if someone is interested I can give them mine.
He said that he has performed 148 shows, has any been the key to the vault of his theater building?
If I had to choose one, it would be the Diálogo del Amargo, about Lorca’s poem. It lasted four and a half minutes. José Luis Alonso, who came to the rehearsals, said: “The egg of Columbus, child, you have found the egg of Columbus.” But apart from the idea, he had Antonio Banderas and Nacho Martínez, monumental. I would choose it because time control is very important, the worst demon of theater is boredom. In a vote, people would choose The Public, but for me it was a big contradiction. It was a great success but I don’t know if Lorca wrote it for it to be. You are left with the question of whether for it to be a success it would have had to spit on the public. Perhaps the one who consciously came out of my heart the most was Edward II. Of recent years, I would choose In memoriam. The fifth of the bottle.
Now what time is it?
Alfredo Alcón, when asked if wisdom is acquired with age, said: “It’s not true, it’s full of old fools.” And it’s true, with age you get many ills that you didn’t have before, you have to take much more care of yourself. The pandemic has been very good for me. I was always fast, I read secretly from myself. He thought: “You should be reading the work of an author who will call you in three days.” Not now. I gained a few kilos of freedom. I have read unusual things, protocol books, one of the things that I like the most, they explain many things about history. And I’ve been to the Prado a lot: every time I see a Velázquez it happens to me like when I listen to Caballé, a miracle. Even so, in 2023 I have accumulated two operas and a work that I have never done in its entirety, Blood Wedding.
Is your abrupt departure from the Teatre Lliure in 2018 being prosecuted?
Yes, I am not nostalgic. It caused me a logical pain and I left, just like when Gonzalo [his partner] died, I left the house where we lived the next day. I am not morbid. And I don’t have a grudge, I don’t have time to hold it. I was completely overwhelmed by the beheading of Professor Samuel Paty in France by an Islamist. The press made a big echo, and after 15 days the news came out that not only the complaint against the teacher was false but that the girl who told her father had not even gone to class, but that appeared little . The same thing happened with the Lliure report that I demanded about my stage and that showed 98% job happiness. I thought that if that man had had his head cut off for a girl’s lie to ingratiate himself with his father, I had come out okay. One more accident in all this madness in which news is news and, after two hours, a fake.
Can’t imagine going back to Barcelona?
No. Barcelona became an unlivable place for me, personally and professionally. I hesitated between going to Milan or Madrid, and I had more friends in Madrid, I didn’t choose it by opposition. When I go to Barcelona, ??where I have so many things, I feel a rejection that I cannot explain. Madrid is an anonymous city, nobody asks you where you come from or what you are and that makes life a lot easier, but it could be another. I continue to be very sniper and loner.
