Emma Vilarasau premieres the comedy Lali Symon at Romea, the story of a stand-up comedy actress who, between her sarcastic monologues, has to take care of her mother, an elderly woman. She gave the initial idea to Sergi Belbel, who put it to work, surprising everyone, she was the first.
Vilarasau explains how it all started: “I am living an experience, long in time, that many of my friends are also living. Then I realize that it is not a personal thing, but a problem of this society, what do we do with the elderly. Residential care is not what we want for our parents, and having them at home is complicated and you need a lot of money, time. Years ago this didn’t happen, because there were already women, who took care of them. But now no one can take care of them.”
“I thought that this is not talked about – he continues -. Yes, The Father, who is a man with Alzheimer’s, was made, but it is a very specific case, and I was looking for something more general. I wanted to talk about the relationship between mothers and daughters at this stage of life, which is difficult for them, because they see that their time is up, and it is difficult for us, because you can’t give them all the time what would you like, because you have a life that you cannot stop and you feel very guilty; you get a lot of things mixed up”.
“Since I couldn’t find any work that talked about old age and who accompanies this old age, I thought we should do it ourselves. It was necessary for both, mother and daughter, to have a voice, without making a big drama out of it. My mother is not this lady, Aurora, because she had to be someone who could be everyone’s mother.”
And that’s when Sergi Belbel buys her idea and suggests she become a stand-up comedy actress. “It fascinated me because it took me out of my comfort zone, and I really enjoyed it. What I did ask of her is that I wanted the mother to speak, to assert herself and complain, to be very powerful.” In fact, the mother, Mont Plans, takes center stage in the scenes between monologues, accompanied by Júlia Bonjoch, who plays the role of the granddaughter.
Vilarasau is satisfied with the result: “It’s what we were looking for. There are many things left to say, and for that a book would be needed, but what I wanted to explain has been synthesized quite well in a play. And I want to thank Sergi for letting me enter his laboratory and stir up the work”.
The actress has never done stand-up and confesses that, at first, she was embarrassed: “I don’t know, but I also want to put myself on the tightrope and throw myself off the motorbike. And if I screw her up, look, I’ll have screwed her up and nothing more than that will happen. But I really enjoyed playing it.”
“My character is not a normal and ordinary stand-up, but a political and social activist, very feminist. She is sassy, ??ironic, she is a classy and very powerful aunt. And when he gets home, he has what he has.” Vilarasau talks about masks: “We all wear them, and in the case of Lali Symon, I noticed that, apart from the glasses and the hair to not be her, her big mask is the microphone. It helps you a lot and gives you a lot of power. Now I understand why many stand-ups, especially Americans, go with the microphone in their hand. I thought if they could use a headband mic, why did they choose the other one. And I have discovered that it gives power, it is a point of support”.
“The work is a tribute to the women of this generation, because they could not choose. They were born during the war and a very hard post-war period. A woman was supposed to get married, have children and form a family. He was not expected to devote himself to anything else, and they could not even dream of it. And if they dreamed of it, they couldn’t do it. Looking at it from now on, it is very cruel what happened to them. And today, although women work, they also continue to be the ones who take care of the elderly”.
Belbel has written this role especially for Vilarasau, with a text that has been open until the last moment. Lali Symon is a co-production of the Romea theater and the Greek Festival and can be seen in the hall on Carrer Hospital from this Saturday until July 30.
