When José Martret read the story of the Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho in her autobiographical book Memorias de una infamía, he immediately considered that those experiences should go up on stage to give them “the loudspeaker of the theater.” Those experiences refer to the kidnapping and torture that Cacho suffered at the hands of the Mexican police.
The seed was the book The Demons of Eden, an extensive study in which the journalist denounced an international network of pedophilia and sexual exploitation of minors, between the ages of 4 and 14, that involved powerful businessmen and politicians.
The playwright and director remembers: “I met Cacho in Madrid and when I read his book I asked his permission to prepare a first draft on how I thought it should be brought to the stage.” From that first proposal, the theatrical production La infamía ended up emerging, which is now at the Borràs theater in Barcelona, where Martret combines theater and film, using a camera that reproduces a close-up of the actress during the play.
Cacho, who as a result of her research work lives in exile in Spain, has worked on the adaptation with Martret. “The infamy is based on my story, but it is very timely for the times in which we live, since there are kidnappings of journalists and many of them risk their lives in war conflicts. Documentary theater does an immense favor to material of this nature.”
“The work also talks about my fellow journalists who have disappeared in Mexico, as well as in other Latin American countries, such as Colombia…”, declares Cacho, who announces that the work has already been translated into English and French, and they are looking for theaters to represent it in Latin America.
Regarding this aspect, the author declares that they have considered the accent of the actresses, since "they do not represent only a Mexican journalist, but journalists from all over the world", and therefore it will be interpreted with professionals from each country. In the case of performances in Spain, actresses Marina Salas and Marta Nieto play the same role for one week each. They have done it this way from the beginning, and that is why they received the Max award for best actress ex aequo.
For the montage, Martret considered from the first moment the use of the camera, which Alicia Aguirre Polo handles. “A camera on stage offers us a close-up of the protagonist, so that the viewer can make their own choice: see the actress live or in the close-up of the screen, which is more difficult in theater,” he explains. the director and adapter. “It is so difficult to tell a thriller in theater, that from the first moment I considered using the camera.”
The play La infamía was canceled in Toledo by the PP and Vox government. “The previous counselor fell in love with the two actresses as a result of her participation in a conference on feminism and equality, and she promoted the procedures so that the work could be done,” says Martret. When there was a change of government, budgetary problems were alleged and it was cancelled. There was another theater in Toledo that offered to host it, but technically it couldn't fit.” In Barcelona, at the Borràs theater, in Balañá en Viu, it can be performed without restrictions.
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