Motherhood in all its forms is a recurring theme in current fiction. The theater is not saved, of course. Last night, like every autumn, and there are already twelve, the final of the Torneig de Dramatúrgia put an end to Temporada Alta.
In 2011, based on an idea by Jordi Casanovas, the Girona theater festival wanted to experiment with young playwrights who were willing to play with their pieces. The success was so resounding that in these twelve years not one comma of the participation rules has been changed.
Yesterday, in the La Planeta room in Girona, Carla Rovira, with El canvi, and Xavi Buxeda, with Ja ho deixarem escrit reached the grand final. There are two works for two actresses, with only one specificity in the case of Rovira's work: one of the actresses must be black. The specificity is for one, and we all assume that the other three will be white. This micro-racism is similar to many of those that run through Rovira's work.
Yolanda Sey and Anna Alarcón were the two in charge of defending the winning piece, while Maria Rodríguez and Bàrbara Mestanza performed Buxeda's work. The bases say that the same afternoon of the function, a few hours before, the playwright and his interpreters will meet for the first time, and in those previous hours they will discover the text, and the author will be able to give four indications.
As if that weren't already complicated, yesterday the electricity company decided to give them an added difficulty: it left them without light all afternoon. In Meritxell Yanes' version, the crazy presenter of this crazy proposal, was an operator who made a bad connection with the Christmas lights.
The fact is that the four actresses with their respective authors had to prepare the texts with flashlights. "We have been about to suspend," announced the director of Temporada Alta, Salvador Sunyer, shortly before the interpreters jumped into the ring. But the light came back thanks to someone making another provisional splice. If it's not true...
The story of Carla Rovira revolves around two women who have just been mothers in vitro. Since one is white and the other is black, the white woman realizes that her daughter cannot be hers, while the black woman has a white husband and a possible confusion never crossed her mind.
The clinical error favors a series of reflections and reproaches, in which the public often feels challenged. A good idea would have been to put a second ballot box, next to the one that served to deposit the public's verdict on the two works, to vote with which of the two mothers each one feels identified.
Buxeda's work, Ja ho deixarem escrit, stirs up the past of two old university friends, thick and thin, who meet again after a few years and catch up in every way.
Due to having reached the final of the Drama Tournament, organized by Temporada Alta and the SGAE Foundation, the two works with their respective authors will travel to Buenos Aires to participate in the Transatlantic Drama Tournament.
Catalan version, here
