The seizure of the ministries of Culture by Vox at the regional and municipal level begins to have effects. The Madrid company Teatro Defondo has issued a statement in which it denounces that after the arrival of the far-right party at the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Valdemorillo City Council (Madrid), its owner, Victoria Amaparo Gil Movellán, has suspended the performance of the Orlando by Virginia Woolf scheduled for November 25 at the 7 Villas de la Comunidad Festival, alleging that it is a “decision of the government team.”
The Compañía Teatro Defondo denounces that “a work of universal literature and a world-renowned author have been banned. Neither this nor any artistic piece should be subject to political censorship in a State of Law.” “This is a very serious event that violates freedom of expression and culture”, since, they say, “the reason cannot be economic because the cache of the show was much lower than usual, as it was part of the activities of the Festival 7 Villas” or artistic “because the show has performed more than a hundred performances throughout Spain.” In Madrid it was seen in February and March at the Teatro Quique San Francisco.
“The company -they continue- maintains a telephone conversation with the Valdemorillo City Council, in which it is clear that it is a case of an ideological veto by the incoming councilor, going over the agreement already established by the outgoing team, because the protagonist of the show goes from being a man to being a woman and denounces the differences that this means”.
In the novel Orlando, which has become an obligatory text in current scenarios but also in gender studies, Virginia Woolf narrates in 1928, inspired by the aristocratic family of her lover Vita Sackville-West, the adventures of a poet who lives through centuries and who changes sex from male to female, meeting key figures in English literature.
“Neither its themes nor its poetry can hurt. Trying to demonize culture and reduce it to tendentious labels is only the first step towards burning books that do not conform to the dominant ideology. We do not accept political censorship, whatever ideology it comes from. From Teatro Defondo we demand responsibility from the political formations and criteria from their elected officials”.
The Valdemorillo City Council ensures that the cancellation of Orlando is due to economic reasons and they deny that it is for ideological reasons, and they reason that due to the situation of the extended budget of the consistory, “some issues that were being considered” have been dispensed with. like the summer cinema, which will not be held this year. In addition, the City Council has remarked that “it was listed as a possible work”, but “as a closed program there was nothing”.
