Watusi Day is a unique novel for many reasons: because of its magnitude, because of the point of view of Barcelona from the margins and because its author, Francisco Casavella, died at the age of 45. The uniqueness of this novel, which consists of three parts, is the approach to Barcelona at the time of the democratic transition that has been little explored in literature. Considered a cult novel, the playwright and theater director Iván Morales wanted to turn it into a theatrical piece, which premieres this Wednesday at the Teatre Lliure de Gràcia (until May 5) and which has already sold out.
“I have been directing theater for some time now – explains Morales, since he premiered the legendary Sé de un lugar in 2011 – and now I have the same feeling that I had when I did the first play: I felt that this could not be done and we have done it . It is one of the most important sensations that you can give as an artist. This story vindicates a story that is more in the shadows, and its characters have to do with who I am and where I come from. It was up to me, in some way, to take that witness and show it to the new generations.”
“The novel infects many things and above all it infects ambition, ambition inwards,” Morales continues. You look for your own story and then destroy it. I think Casavella ended up overwhelmed by this story, by the desire to explain this story. For us it has been the same, chasing the white whale.”
The cast is headed by Enric Auquer, who plays Fernando Atienza, and is accompanied by Guillem Balart, David Climent, Bruna Cusí, Raquel Ferri, Vicenta Ndongo and Xavi Sáez. “Watusi Day passes between August 15, 1971 and March 1, 1986,” says Auquer. It is the story of a declassed person, who was born in the little houses of Montjuïc. His mother says that he will be a professor but he makes wrong decisions. The work also talks about the destruction of the story that we build to live. All this to explain in this baroque story of Casavella. When we get it, fantastic magic happens.”
Balart considers that the novel “is pure literature.” “That is why we have put together the work very performatively. Auquer is the only one who plays a character from the beginning to the end and the rest of us move along. Of my characters, I am fond of Pepito, a childhood friend of Atienza. He represents very well the invention of that world, like the Watusi, to survive the misery in which they live.”
Ndongo remembers that he met Casavella, “who makes a portrait of a Barcelona that we have not seen in the theater; It is a hidden Barcelona, where there were the little houses, the picnic areas of Barceloneta, the heroin... It is a Barcelona that also has its own poetry. Today everything is very segmented and then everything was mixed, and people of all kinds gathered in the same bar.” One of her characters is her mother: “Through her we pay tribute to all those women who gave an education to her children.”
The adapter and director gives more clues: “The story of the transition has been questioned a lot, and Casavella speaks without any complex about the class struggle. The format of the work is the evangelical misses on Sundays in places like l'Hospitalet. It seemed to me that plot-wise and spiritually, The Day of the Watusi needed this format. It has, as in a mass, music, testimony, sacrifice... When you read Casavella's work, you have music in your head all the time, therefore, we celebrate a Watusian mass, fleeing from a literary theater, to give to the public something that surprises you. We have a brutal word, also music, movement... The format evolves and changes,” concludes Morales.
