"Cádiz and Barcelona were the main slave ports on the Peninsula," recalls Sergi Pompermayer, author of the new La Villarroel production, Amèrica, which can be seen from December 6 to February 26.
The playwright is surprised that there is so much silence about the Spanish slave past, also from Barcelona. "I was the first to be unaware and a friend told me that one of his ancestors had the expiatory temple of Tibidabo built to atone for precisely that sin of her family."
“If this nation wants to be better,” Pompermayer continues, “it has to look the past in the face and we have to ask for forgiveness. Catalonia is a European nation and it has also been exploitative”. However, the author insists that it is not a pamphlet. The story is explained from the present, with a family from the Catalan high bourgeoisie, with references to the past, to 19th century Cuba.
“From them, I try to explain to all of us, to understand what Catalonia is and what Spain is today. We have to live with a past that is painful, that we cannot ignore, and not just think that we are an oppressed nation, because we have also been oppressed,” the author remarks.
The production of La Villarroel began to take shape two years ago and now it comes to the stage in a very simplified format. “The text is so powerful that we have decided to strip the room bare”, declares Julio Manrique, director of the proposal, who hopes that “the work will provoke, bother, excite and also make people laugh; and that, when we leave the room, we ask ourselves questions”.
Manrique directs a company headed by Joan Carreras and Mireia Aixalà, as well as the veteran Carme Fortuny, three performers with whom he has worked on previous productions. The other three actors, Tamara Ndong, Marc Bosch and Aida Llop, emerged from the castings and it is the first time that he has worked with them.
“It is a work of first times –says Manrique–. It is the first time that I have assumed the direction of a La Villarroel production and it is also the first time that I have staged a work by Pompermayer, who is a very close friend of mine. His work is very powerful, courageous in terms of content and the way he has done it. And what could he do with the team? Well, find the best way to explain this story.”
The director highlights the incorporation of the Afro-Catalan actress Tamara Ndong: "She did a test that left us in awe, and I can say that it is a gift to have her in the company." The actress says: “I was very shocked when I read the play, so when I did the casting I decided that I had to undress in every way. There are many people who have experienced these situations, which is why it is very angry and impotent to play that character, to the point that I have had to distance myself. The public will go through many moments of discomfort. I really want to do it, but I have even more desire to do it."
Pompermayer details that the character of Amèrica collects many stories of Cuban slaves, and about the character of the present, Kayla, adds: "She lives many micro-racisms that drink from the experience of my Afro-descendant, Ethiopian daughter." The author has gathered true stories of Cuban slaves and also mentions duly documented surnames of the slave-owning upper bourgeoisie of Catalonia.
Regarding the action, it happens on a sunny day, during the celebration of the 20th birthday of the heir of a family that lives in a mansion. “The work sails between two times. It happens in the present but visits the past”, says Manrique. "We want to restore dignity to people who did not have it in life," he concludes.
Catalan version, here
