For a dozen years, the Argentine playwright Nelson Valente has been one of the regular authors on the Catalan stage. His proposals are well received and now, taking a step forward, he has written a work about a Catalan family, designed expressly for the occasion. This is Amnèsia, which premieres in the TNC’s Petita room (9/V-2/VI). “It’s a work where I touch on a new theme, which is that of a dysfunctional family,” jokes Valente, given that his works are characterized by this type of family.
Valente read a text by Buñuel that spoke of his mother’s memory, which led him to memories and personal references, and from here Amnèsia emerged. The playwright and director explains: “It’s a family that doesn’t know exactly what to do with its memories. The anecdote is about those moments when parents can’t take care of themselves and their children have to help them, who can’t come to an agreement.”
Mercè Aránega is the mother of this unique family, “with diagnosed amnesia,” the actress points out. Her children are Joan Negrié, “who has left home to succeed”; Míriam Iscla, the middle daughter, who lives with her mother; and Victòria Pagès, “the daughter who only visits the family twice a year and does not have the emotional tools to take charge of this situation,” explain the interpreters. The cast is completed with Màrcia Cisteró, who plays the wife of her son; and Biel Rossell, the young daughter’s new young partner.
Iscla summarizes the conflict of the play: “My character has the luck and misfortune of living with his mother. She is a little lost in life, and she has created some mutual dependencies with her mother. She is the one who causes the conflict when she wants things to change.” And she adds: “With the director we have worked on this drama, this tragedy, to reach the comedy. All the drama is there, but it needs to be seen.”
“I have experienced this situation with my mother,” says Pagès. Sometimes you live it with humor, because you can’t live a drama every day, it would be unbearable.” Iscla clarifies: “We do not laugh at the mother who loses her memory, but with her mother. We never laugh at her. It is a situation comedy and, if we laugh, it is for catharsis.” “In these things, theater is very therapeutic,” says Pagès. And Valente concludes: My therapist told me that he was quite right in the head with the outlook he had because he knew how to make good use of humor. The objective of my look is for people to laugh for 80 minutes and for the last 10 minutes to reflect on what they have been laughing about.”
Amnèsia is a co-production of the TNC and the Trono theater in Tarragona. Negrié, who also signed the Catalan translation, explains that this work “is a good way to close the twenty years of history of the Throne,” and confirms that the room is closing. In autumn they will spend the season in a small space, El Magatzem, hoping to find a more suitable place to continue their successful project.
Catalan version, here
