Today is the first time the No empty seat initiative is being celebrated, which aims to fill theaters throughout Catalonia with spectators, in a kind of theater Sant Jordi. The forecasts are optimistic, the occupancy of a Saturday in March has already been exceeded and sales are approaching the 60,000 tickets available. To understand the current situation in the sector, La Vanguardia spoke to two playwrights and stage managers: Sergi Belbel and Victoria Szpunberg. He has two of his own creations on tour, Lali Symon and Hamlet.01, and she has the Categorical Imperative on the bill at the Teatre Lliure de Gràcia.
How do you see the current situation of the theater?
Sergi Belbel: If we talk about employment levels, there is still a lot of ground to conquer, due to the number of people who are dedicated to this profession and cannot earn a living. And from a more particular point of view, as playwrights who write in a minority language, we can see that we are living a good time creatively. As far as contemporary theatrical authorship is concerned, the Catalan woman enjoys iron health. Proof of this is the last three shows that Victoria Szpunberg has done. For the first time, a playwright can present more than one work, which is rare in a small situation like ours. A dramaturgy is not made up of a successful work, but of a group of people working. And there are new generations, who are in their early twenties, like Berta Prieto, although the female authorship still does not reach 50%.
Victoria Szpunberg: There is a very strong precariousness of the sector, with people investing their money to make plays, as I have done myself, and it is money that does not return. Without continuity you cannot make a trajectory. And you often have the feeling that each work is an exam: start from scratch. This has to do with overcoming the mechanisms of self-censorship, because if I say I want to make a work, two or three, and they must all be well received, there is a danger of falling into a kind of formula that does not allow you to connect with other issues.
S.B.: And a failed experiment must not be understood as a mistake. This happens a lot and that author is not given any more opportunities.
Is there a lot of creative talent?
S.B.: The amount of creative talent that this country produces is unheard of. We must be the theatrical territory of the world where this is most exaggerated. Because in London it is clear that they have many authors, but they have ten million citizens living in that metropolis and because of the language, all visitors and passers-by are potential customers, which we do not have here, because tourism does not come to us here let me see.
V.S.: There is a very rich diversity of voices in Catalan authorship. From Sergi Belbel and Sanchis Sinisterra, who are the two great masters of Catalan drama, because you have been teachers, and also Benet and Jornet, today there is an immense range. There is a great diversity of young voices who have continuity, such as Joan Yago or Marc Artigau, or Guillem Clua, who is more than my age, but there is a lack of spaces.
Do we have a space problem?
V.S.: There are more artists than exhibition spaces. And they suffer what the programming criteria. There would be more public or semi-public spaces, and more strong commitment by the private, that the private be private without fads. So that the subsidy was for spaces that could support this diversity.
S.B.: The public theater has been created by taking a project that was private, like the Teatre Lliure. And on the other hand, a great project by a great actor and director who came from the Comédie, with a spirit of national theater of the 20th century, which is very good but which does not respond to the reality of the medium theaters we need.
What is this size?
S.B.: Many works have a reach of between 200 and 300 spectators, which is where we excel. We have rooms with 700 seats, where we are oversized. And, on the contrary, small rooms, where we lack space.
V.S.: We need more rooms like the one downstairs at la Beckett, the Lliure de Gràcia and, now, the Espai Texas. When we do the works, we do them with few characters… Right now, with all the tickets sold for The Categorical Imperative, what are we going to do? There is no continuity and it runs out. Exhibition spaces are missing.
And what else is missing?
V.S.: For me, there is also a lack of connection with the public; we lack audience There is a lot of theater culture missing, there are people who don’t even know how to go to the theater and what they can go see. There is no theatrical culture rooted in our idiosyncrasy.
There is always talk of the theatrical differences with Madrid.
V.S.: It’s that you go to Madrid and come back with euphoria because people go out and there’s money.
S.B.: It is because there is not the pressure we have here: we self-flagellate and there is an exhaust valve.
V.S.: On the other hand, the level here is exceptional. Catalan actors and actresses are very good.
S.B.: Madrid is like London, and in terms of production they pay more than here. The work is the same, but there is more money.
Where is there more demand?
V.S.: I don’t want to generalize, but the teams are more demanding here. In terms of excellence and creative demands, we have great professionals in the performing arts. It is curious, because there is a tradition of making theater, such as amateur groups and towns, but there is a lack of correspondence with the public, the connection. In Argentina, my country of origin, people go to the theater to see whatever, sometimes really weird stuff, because it’s a meeting place.
There are those who say that the Catalan character does not facilitate this connection.
S.B.: Beckett’s bar connects the neighborhood with the theater. You walk past the Romea and don’t look inside; you only go there if you’re going to see the theater. Therefore, every neighborhood should have a Beckett, and this should be the public theater in Barcelona, ??which, by the way, does not have one. It is one of the few cities in the world with more than a million inhabitants that does not have a municipal theater, and that is a shame. In Madrid, there are a few municipal theaters, it’s brutal.
How do they see us abroad?
S.B.: The international response we have is incredible, with authors such as Josep Maria Miró, Guillem Clua, Marta Buchaca, Jordi Galceran… A piece like Laponia, by Marc Angelet and Cristina Clemente, is succeeding all over America. It is incredible that such a small culture with such a powerful and international dramaturgy does not have its own space.
V.S.: Now there are many companies again, which was typical of the seventies, with very powerful proposals.
How do you see the connection with tradition?
S.B.: This year we celebrate the year of Guimerà. There is a curator, many events are held, but: where are the big productions, which the Free Theater and the National Theater should do?
The TNC has announced one.
S.B.: Yes, but next year. We are late.
V.S.: It’s a complex culture and that’s not healthy. We should be very proud of it. The theater is ancestral, it is an absolutely privileged space. We shut ourselves off without interruption so that other people represent reality to us. And this must be alive and connected to the present.
S.B.: Constantly revising yourself is something of romanticism, which imposes this thing of having references and taking Shakespeare as a model. But I think there is an aspect of tradition that is interesting: the language, the connection with the language, because the language is alive, it changes, it evolves. I like to read Verdaguer’s poems and enjoy that richness. I love Guimerà’s language, because it is a sexual, powerful language. But we do not revisit them well; we have to do it from our contemporaneity and learn from it, because here we forget very quickly.
In this increasingly technological world, why does the theater remain?
S.B.: I don’t think artificial intelligence will do us any harm. Other way round. Tests have been made as with Waiting for Godot and the result is a disaster. All the parameters were put in and it turns out that the characters say things like: “I’m tired of waiting”. No, sorry, that’s what I have to see, not what the character has to say. The theater is a political act, of connection with the public.
V.S.: And of bodies present. If we were locked in a cave, we would entertain each other. The theater is a playful, game space. But not for leisure, alert. When we do comedy, there’s an idea about laughter that says it’s not tied to reflection or intelligence, and for me the fascinating moment is when laughter connects with crying, with intelligence, which is the tragicomedy It’s what I like the most. The theater entertains, and that is a privilege, and it is a deeply healthy space because it makes you think, because it makes you uncomfortable.
What is the magic of the theater?
S.B.: In the theatre, we have to leave our mobile phones and watches parked. The grace and the magic is that there is nothing between us who do the lying and you who receive it. That the channel is unique and that the time is shared is communion, and it is the great magic. Collectiveness is only achieved in the theater.
V.S.: That’s why we have to believe in artists. If a theater bets on an artist, it must let him do what he wants, trust him, because it is a field of freedom. And it doesn’t mean that it has to connect with the present, but with the present, because, from my point of view, theater cannot be museum-like. And it’s also not like cinema, which has many tricks and can be edited: theater can’t be edited. It’s a collective lie we believe, and every night is different.
