Blanca Portillo dramatizes Juan Mayorga's entrance speech at the RAE

Juan Mayorga does not know not to do theater.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
13 October 2022 Thursday 11:48
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Blanca Portillo dramatizes Juan Mayorga's entrance speech at the RAE

Juan Mayorga does not know not to do theater. For this reason, when he was preparing his entrance speech at the RAE, he already thought that that text about silence, full of quotes from fictional characters, could one day become "a theatrical action". It premiered in Madrid last January and tomorrow it arrives at the TNC's Tallers room, until October 23.

For the character that Silencio plays, Mayorga knew that only Blanca Portillo could do it: "Because she is a true friend and a gifted actress, with a very wide palette, which allows her to unfold in all those characters."

“The central action of Silence is that of an actress who has accepted an assignment that a playwright friend has given her the day before, at 12 midnight. It is about her reading the entrance speech at the RAE for him, although neither she is Blanca nor he is me. What she does is unfold into the different characters that are mentioned in the speech and turn the dais into a stage. Also, she conflicts with some aspects of the speech, ”explains the playwright.

“The actress goes through moments of plays such as Antigone, Life is a dream, The house of Bernarda Alba, The cherry orchard... And also of theatrical moments that we have taken from Quixote, The Karamazov brothers or The letter to the father, of Kafka, which have in common the drama of silence”.

Silencio is "a tribute to the theater but above all to the actor," says Mayorga. "On stage there is nothing more mysterious than silence, that space beyond and beyond words, where we are made aware that theater is the actor's art, the actor's kingdom."

Mayorga and Portillo began to work during confinement and rehearsed telematically. "I sign the direction -clarifies the playwright-, but we have built it together, in addition to all those who have participated in the assembly".

About her experience, actress Blanca Portillo explains: “I live Silencio as an emotional and intellectual journey that I can never let go of. It grabs me by the heart from the first second and I go through the show with soul, heart and life. It is a privilege to say those words, because Juan is one of the best playwrights, I would say in the world. And I share many of the things he says, ”she concludes.