The Grec festival brings together a series of premieres by Catalan playwrights who also direct their works. This week, three coincide: Sílvia Navarro (Barcelona, 1982) premiered on Wednesday in the Flyhard room with Negatius, a claim by the invisible photographer Gerda Taro, half of the pseudonym Robert Capa; yesterday Marta Buchaca (Barcelona, 1979) premiered the comedy How much time do I have left? at the Goya Theater, on the imminence of death; and Jordi Prat i Coll (Barcelona, 1975) leads to the Lliure de Gràcia Fàtima, about immigration in his Raval neighborhood. The three of us talked about current drama in the equator of a Greek festival that, while preparing their productions, they have not yet been able to follow, but plan to immerse themselves in it when they have premiered.
What does it mean to debut at the Grec?
MARTA BUCHACA: It's a fantastic showcase, but for me to do it at the Goya, such a large room, makes me dizzy and responsible.
SÍLVIA NAVARRO: It's a double award, because it also premiered at Flyhard, which has opted for this production, which I don't have to self-produce like it has happened to me until now.
JORDI PRAT i COLL: I like the festival concept a lot, because there is someone who thinks of an ecosystem for the summer of Barcelona for a whole year, and my work is a co-production with the Teatre Lliure, a collaboration that had not happened to me for 17 years .
How do you feel directing your own plays?
M.B.: Me, happy, because I have directed all of them since the third one that I premiered, and that is how the text ends in rehearsals. The actors tell me that I listen to them a lot and it's logical, because when they put themselves in the shoes of the characters, they already know them better than I do. I am changing things every day, but the truth is that it is very easy.
SN: For me it is also finishing the text by working on it with the actors. I make many cuts or rewrites, even though in the case of Negatius I have not, because the text is already published and that gives me respect, because a reader could complain that what appears in the book is not what we say in the function. Anyway, in this case the text already worked.
M.B.: Something very distressing has happened to me. On August 8 they start shooting the film in Spanish. So while we've been rehearsing the play and changing things to make it work better, I've been changing the script as well.
J.P.C.: As a director, when I direct classics and contemporary British texts, I come out on top. As an author, I have my hobbies and they are impulses that go as they go. Lately I have found a way to write from aspects of the human soul. As for the text, I defend it to the death, because I think that if the author has done it that way, it's for a reason. Even in my texts I change very few things, it is very difficult for me to do so. Only when I am completely convinced that it improves.
M.B.: That's because you have directorial training.
J.P.C.: And I write with very few dimensions and punctuation.
M.B.: I do it the other way around and change whatever is necessary. I'm not lazy, because I think the montage wins.
SN: I also cut without fear.
Is tempo important in your works?
J.P.C.: A lot, so they don't go on too long and the public doesn't lose interest.
M.B.: With comedies, I try not to reach an hour and a half, which seems like a good length to me. If it can be less, even better.
Will we finally meet Gerda Taro with Negatius?
SN: I think so, despite the fact that everything went wrong for her in life and, furthermore, the negatives were lost. In rehearsals we have found her soul and she has made us fall in love with her.
How do you see contemporary dramaturgy?
M.B.: With a lot of talent and with few possibilities. There is little risk in production and there are many replacements.
SN: There is a splendid moment of creation, but the door is very narrow. And the people who have passed have no intention of moving away. I have been lucky and I have made my way.
M.B.: In 2007, when I left the Institut del Teatre, there were grants, there were prizes and things happened, because there was production and there was money in the theaters. But people who finish their studies now have it very complicated. Before, just if they gave you an award, there was more look towards you.
J.P.C.: There are many people who want to dedicate themselves to theater and you have to relax a lot with the ecosystem that we have, where there are things that are very good and others that need to be improved. It is very difficult for the public not to plan to go once or twice a year to see a play. And that we have to ask ourselves as a society. We will write works at all costs, with resources or with precariousness. The bad thing is that we produce a lot and exhibit very little, because the subsidy system rewards production, but not exhibition. After battling for a year or two, sooner or later you arrive brand new, but the play is only performed for three weeks, and you don't make a profession out of that.
M.B.: In any conversation, we take it for granted that none of us make a living doing theater, and we have to say it out loud. I live doing many things, because there is a lot of talent but also a lot of precariousness.
It is said that Catalan has limitations when it comes to writing. Does it constrain you?
J.P.C.: I have always really enjoyed putting words in different registers. The word on stage is codified and we make the most of the spoken voice, the sonority. I shy away from scenic realism. And if the person does not understand a word, he will understand it by the tone in how it is said.
M.B.: Sometimes the actors change things and I realize that it couldn't have been written that way because it doesn't sound right. What I'm looking for is that it be plausible, according to the origin of the character.
J.P.C.: I don't feel corseted, that's a false prejudice.
Any message to the public?
J.P.C.: Theater is experience. Like Big Brother, “living it is not the same as telling it”. That they come to live it, it is a vital experience.
M.B.: The collective experience is a pleasure.
Catalan version, here
