Today is the first time that the No empty seat initiative is being celebrated, which wants to fill theaters all over Catalonia with spectators, in a kind of theater Sant Jordi. The forecasts are optimistic, the occupancy of a Saturday in March has already been exceeded and sales are approaching the 60,000 tickets available. To analyze the current situation in the sector, La Vanguardia has spoken to two playwrights and stage directors: Sergi Belbel and Victoria Szpunberg. He has two of his own creations on tour, Lali Symon and Hamlet.01, and she has the Categorical Imperative on the bill at the Teatre Lliure de Gràcia.
How do you see the current situation of the theater?
Sergi Belbel: If we talk about employment levels, there is still a lot of ground to conquer, due to the number of people who are dedicated to this profession and cannot make a living. And from a more particular point of view, as playwrights who write in a minority language, we can confirm that we are experiencing a good moment on a creative level. With respect to contemporary theatrical authorship, Catalan theater enjoys iron health. Proof of this are the last three shows that Victoria Szpunberg has put on. For the first time, a playwright can present more than one work, something unusual in a small situation like ours. A dramaturgy is not made up of a success, but rather a group of people working. And there are new generations, in their early twenties, like Berta Prieto, although female authorship still does not reach 50%.
Victoria Szpunberg: There is a very strong precarization of the sector, with people who invest their money to put on plays, as I have done myself, and it is money that does not return. Without continuity you cannot build a trajectory. And many times you have the feeling that each work is an exam: starting from scratch. That has to do with overcoming the mechanisms of self-censorship, because if I say that I want to do one work, two or three, and they all have to have a large audience, there is the danger of falling into a kind of formula that does not allow you to connect with Another questions.
S.B.: And that failed experimentation should not be understood as an error. A lot happens and that author is not given more opportunities.
Is there a lot of creative talent?
S.B.: The amount of creative talent that this country produces is unprecedented. We must be the theatrical territory in the world where this is most exaggerated. Because in London it is evident that they have many authors, but they have ten million citizens living in that metropolis and because of the language all the visitors are potential clients, something that we do not have here, because here tourism does not come to see us.
V.S.: There is a very rich diversity of voices of Catalan authorship. From Sergi Belbel and Sanchis Sinisterra, who are the two great masters of Catalan dramaturgy, because you have acted as teachers, and also Benet i Jornet, today there is an immense range. There is a lot of diversity of young voices that have continuity, like Joan Yago or Marc Artigau. But there are missing spaces.
Is there a problem with spaces?
V.S.: There are more artists than exhibition spaces. And the programming criteria make you suffer. There would be a lack of more public or semi-public spaces, and also a stronger commitment from the private sector, that the private sector would be private without manias. So the grant was for spaces that could sustain that diversity.
S.B.: The public theater has been created by taking a project that was private, like that of the Teatre Lliure. And on the other hand, a great project by a great actor and director coming from the Comédie, with a spirit of national theater of the 20th century, which is very good but does not respond to the reality of the medium-sized theaters that we need.
What measurement is that?
S.B.: Many works have a reach of between 200 and 300 spectators, which is where we excel. We have rooms with 700 seats, where we are oversized. And, on the contrary, small rooms, where there is a lack of space.
V.S.: We need more rooms like the one below the Beckett, the Lliure de Gràcia and, now, the Espai Texas. When we write the works, we already put few characters... Right now, with all the tickets sold for L'imperatiu categòric, what will we do? There is no continuity and it runs out. There is a lack of exhibition spaces.
And what else is missing?
V.S.: There is also a lack of connection with the public; we lack public. There is a lack of theatrical culture, there are people who don't even know how to go to the theater and what they can go to see. There is no theatrical culture rooted in our idiosyncrasy.
There is always talk about the theatrical differences with Madrid.
V.S.: You go to Madrid and you come back with euphoria because people go out and there is money.
S.B.: It's because the pressure we have here is not there: we flagellate ourselves and there is an escape valve.
V.S.: On the other hand, the level here is exceptional. The Catalan actors and actresses are very good.
S.B.: Madrid is like London, and at the production level they pay more than here. The work is the same, but there is more money.
Where is there more demand?
V.S.: I don't want to generalize, but the teams are more demanding here. At the level of excellence and creative demand, we have great professionals. There is a tradition, like that of amateur groups, but the correspondence with the public, the connection, fails. In Argentina, my country of origin, people go to the theater to see whatever, sometimes very geeky things, because it is a meeting place.
There are those who say that the Catalan character does not facilitate this connection.
S.B.: The Beckett bar connects the neighborhood with the theater. You pass in front of the Romea and don't look inside; You only go in if you are going to see theater. Every neighborhood should have a Beckett, and that would have to be the public theater of Barcelona, which, by the way, it does not have. It is one of the few cities in the world with more than a million inhabitants that does not have a municipal theater, and that is shameful. In Madrid, there are a few municipal theaters, it is brutal.
How do they see us outside?
S.B.: The international resonance we have is incredible, with authors such as Josep Maria Miró, Guillem Clua, Marta Buchaca, Jordi Galceran... Laponia, by Marc Angelet and Cristina Clemente, is triumphing throughout America. It is incredible that such a small culture with such a powerful dramaturgy and international level does not have its own space.
V.S.: Now there are many companies again, which was typical of the seventies, with very powerful proposals.
How do you see the connection with tradition?
S.B.: This year we celebrate the Guimerà year. There is a curator, many events are held, however: where are the big productions, which the Teatre Lliure and the National should do?
The TNC has announced one.
S.B.: Yes, but for next year. We're late.
V.S.: It is a self-conscious culture and that is not healthy. We should be very proud. The theater is ancestral, it is an absolutely privileged space. We lock ourselves in without interruptions so that other people represent reality to us. And that has to be alive and connected to the present.
S.B.: Constantly revising oneself is something of romanticism, which requires having references and taking Shakespeare as a model. But I think there is an aspect of the tradition that is interesting: the language, the connection with the language, because the language is alive, it changes, it evolves. I like to read poems by Verdaguer and enjoy that richness. I love Guimerà's language, because it is sexual. But we don't revisit them well; We have to do it from our contemporaneity and learn, because here we forget very quickly.
In an increasingly technological world, theater remains.
S.B.: I don't think artificial intelligence will do us any harm. The other way around. Tests have been done like Waiting for Godot and the result is a disaster. All the parameters were set and it turns out that the characters say things like: “Waiting tires me.” No, sorry, that's what I have to see, it's not what the character has to say. Theater is a political act, of connection with the public.
V.S.: And of present bodies. If we were locked in a cave, we would entertain each other. The theater is a recreational, game space. But not for leisure, alert. When we do comedy, there is an idea about laughter that it is not linked to reflection or intelligence, and for me the fascinating moment is when laughter connects with crying, with intelligence, which is tragicomedy. It's what I like the most. Theater amuses, it is a privilege, and it is a deeply healthy space because it makes you think and makes you uncomfortable.
What is the magic of theater?
S.B.: In the theater, we have to leave our cell phones and watches parked. The grace and magic is that there is nothing between those of us who create the lie and you who receive it. That the channel is unique and that the time is shared is communion, and it is the great magic. Collectiveness is only achieved in the theater.
V.S.: That's why we have to believe in artists. If a theater bets on an artist, it has to trust him, because it is a field of freedom. And it does not mean that it has to connect with today, but with the present, because, from my point of view, theater cannot be museum-like. And it is not like cinema, which has many traps and can be edited: theater cannot be edited. It's a collective lie that we believe, and every night is different.
Catalan version, here
