The idea is very simple: based on the fact that theater is ephemeral, that you see the show and then it disappears, and that there are few spaces for reflection on the theatrical event, we decided to record these conversations”. The director of Temporada Alta, Salvador Sunyer, tells the details of the La caverna project, a series of in-depth conversations with creators of the performing arts, who promote the Girona theater festival and the Fundació La Ciutat Invisible.
“We will record six conversations every year –he continues–, but the objective is not so much to create a canon of great creators, but rather a library. And not only theater, but performing arts in general: dance, circus... It is a project that is the opposite of what is currently in fashion, which is to keep things very short. Here what we do are long conversations, always between an artist and a person who selects he or we propose”.
Sunyer insists that they are not interviews: “It is rather a conversation that basically has to serve two things. One, to explain what his theater is, where it comes from and where it is going. Not about the show that they can present in High Season, but about their route. And the other, about the vision that each one has about the theatrical event. This is the idea".
“They are in-depth interviews, lasting one hour, where the person who talks with the creator is close to him or knows his work a lot. Because the will is that those who are interested in the work of these people, who know it well or who have seen it one day, through these conversations can go a little further, which is something that rarely happens in the theater ” adds the director of Temporada Alta.
The name of The Cave comes from Plato, of course: "It was a bit the idea of saying: if the theater is these shadows that are normally seen inside the cave, that is, shadows of the reality of life, well now there is the conversation, which is the conversation they had inside the cave, in which the philosopher teaches and explains it.
The La cavern project began on July 6, when the first conversation was posted. The creator is Angélica Liddell, who speaks with the theater critic and journalist René Solis. In these few weeks she has already been seen by more than 1,500 people. “It is still something surprising nowadays, and more so in something like the theater, which has what it has”, points out Sunyer.
“The idea of speaking a lot or deeply enough about theatrical topics also has its value. For example, the first three, Liddell, Romeo Castellucci and Declan Donnellan, no matter how visual Castellucci may be, all three claim silence and no words, which is something very curious”, he comments to the director of Temporada Alta. In this series there are also the conversations of Christiane Jatahy, María Muñoz (Mal Pelo) and Marcos Morau (La Veronal), which will be posted next week and of which we offer a preview.
Going forward, the project aims to recruit six creators each year. “The idea is that, among the six creators, there are always three Catalans to put the names that we believe are more solid on the international circuit. The six this year, all have been in High Season and also in the Avignon Festival. And that each one speak as they want, that later we put subtitles in Catalan, Spanish, English and also in Portuguese, because La cavern can also be seen on CaixaForum Digital, which collaborates with us ”, he concludes.
