It's been ten years since the four of us were alone, and we return to doing monologues, like those of the Petits contes misògins, so that we return to the essence, but from another place," explains Marta Pérez. “They were the stories of Patricia Highsmith, which is the first show we put on, in 1991,” adds Ágata Roca. With Mamen Duch and Carme Pla are T de Teatre. The four actresses speak with La Vanguardia at the Romea theater, about to premiere The Phantom Donut, by Mariano Tenconi Blanco.
“In the four monologues, plus a joint scene, we talk about the neuroses of four teachers from the seventies,” continues Roca. “Now, here we use different narrative materials, such as letters, diaries, poetry..., that the director proposes to us,” adds Pérez. “ Tenconi works with music, and it is the first time we do it,” says Roca. “He has tailored it for us and it is like a glove,” says Pérez, about the music of Ian Shifres, which Joan Palet and Rafel Plana perform on stage.
T de Teatre went to look for the Argentine director, as they have done in previous productions, “because he has a sense of humor and a poetic with which we could understand each other, and although we take one step further, at the same time we continue talking about women , of universal themes, of the things that touch us and in which people see themselves reflected,” says Pérez. “The four teachers go through difficult times, each one their own, in a repressed social environment, and they want to break this repression, or they do what they can,” explains Duch. But they will also find access through the time tunnel and go back to the 1920s, with some women who are rehearsing Macbeth and who are shot shortly before its premiere.
But who is the ghost woman? “Let's see how we explain it,” Roca responds. In the fourth monologue, which is done by Carme, she explains that the ghosts of these four women live in the theater where the play is performed. And we take advantage of the fact that we are in Romea to play the game with the ghost of Xirgu, who they say lives here.” Duch adds: “In addition, each of the four teachers has a ghost of her, which in my case is that of the mother.”
Tenconi is the third Argentine director, after Javier Daulte and Ciro Zorzoli, to work with the T de Teatre. “As a company we like to work with directors who have a personal stamp – declares Duch –, and with Argentinians there is a lot of connection and they have a similar sense of humor.” “But we are drier,” Pérez points out. “There is a bit of humor in the work, with more emotional moments,” says Pla. “What we like is for the public to go through all possible records.” The production is by T de Teatre, the National Dramatic Center and the Teatro Romea, and although Tenconi has written the texts in Spanish, the piece premieres in Catalan, in translation by Sergi Belbel, who from the first staging is always at his disposal. . For his part, “Tenconi took an online Catalan course before coming to Barcelona,” reveals Roca.
Pérez explains an anecdote that they experienced in a performance prior to Rubí: “I asked twice, with pause, 'What is life for?', and a lady in the audience answered me: 'Life, girl, is for live it!'; I thought she could leave me now. She was very nervous and that put me in my place.”
Looking back, Pla highlights Delicades as the high point of its 32-year history. Roca talks about the screening of the Jet lag series. And Duch remembers the success of Homes, especially in Madrid, where they spent a year. “The line went around the street, so there was no internet.” “And the success continued later in Buenos Aires,” Pérez remembers. The Argentine connection is already part of the success of this quartet of women with very clear ideas.
