Social networks are extremes: either they elevate a character or they push them to fall into the abyss. This is what happens to the protagonist of Cacophony, the work by Molly Taylor that Anna Serrano premieres at the Beckett theater (until February 25).
“In London I was surprised by how a group of friends spoke calmly about a rapist footballer,” explains Serrano, surprised. In the British capital, the director also found a piece of contemporary theater that captured her.
“Cacophony tells the story of a girl, Abi, who is at a feminist demonstration against that rapist player, and in that demonstration an attack occurs. She posts a text, which immediately goes viral. At a given moment, it is discovered that she has not been completely honest, and that causes the situation to change and the same networks that have elevated her destroy her.”
In the original, the work is based on the rape that a footballer from Belfast had committed, but in the translation and version that Oriol Puig Grau has done with Serrano, the action has been transferred to Barcelona, “as if it happened here”, and the footballer is no one known. The director adds that Taylor had been commissioned to write something based on Jon Ronson's book Humiliation on the Internet. “The journalist talks about a concept that I really like: the democratization of justice.”
“It's a very engaging story, like a thriller, that gradually reveals where it's going. The scenes are very short and go to the core,” describes Clara de Ramon, the actress who stars in this story, with Gemma Martínez, Mariona Pagès, Sandra Pujol Torrent, Chelis Quinzá, Albert Salazar and Clara Sans.
In the upstairs room of the Beckett it is the Col·lectiu Las Huecas who sets up shop. Resident company this season, the actresses were very pleasantly surprised with the previous production, Those Who Should Not Die. and now they are releasing De l’amistat.
The co-production of Las Huecas with Estación Alta and Monte Isla explores precisely the friendship that unites this collective of female artists, but immersed in a working and creative relationship.
“The show is born from the desire to talk about friendship, from our relationship as friends while we do theater,” declares Núria Coromines. Our friendship is linked to work and creation, but we wanted it to be universal. We thought it was the way to be more honest.”
“We didn't want to engage in mysticism or politicking,” he continues, “and that's why we went to the rehearsal room. The mess begins with the metatheatrical dimension. We have made a tragicomedy, putting into play all the positive and negative aspects of friendship. We didn't want to glorify friendship, but also show the mistakes. There are current discourses that present friendship as something idyllic, but if people love each other they also hurt each other. The fact of being friends and working also creates tensions.”
Andrea Pellejero adds: “To contextualize where this piece is located, it must be said that we imagine a triptych, three perspectives around friendship. There is this show; Afterwards there is a performative conference with Marta Echaves, Algo de amor; and the third is an audiovisual piece, which consisted of recording the entire creation process of De l’amistat. We'll see if it ends up being a documentary or what comes out."
Júlia Barbany emphasizes that “the great innovation of this show is Las Huecas working with other actresses”, who are, in addition to those mentioned, Esmeralda Colette, Núria Dalmau, Agnès Jabbour, Blanca Javaloy and Laura Roig. Until February 18, a proposal that will surely not leave anyone indifferent.
Catalan version, here
