The Sala Beckett includes great female names in its thematic cycle The family (or the family?), an initiative organized jointly with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), which aims to reflect on the family, its structural dysfunctionalities and propose relational models alternatives. Thus, this month the plays Tocar mare, by Marta Barceló and directed by Jordi Casanovas, and El desig del cor, by Caryl Churchill and adapted and directed by Lucia Del Greco, will be on the bill.
"There are times when specific concerns can be detected in the themes chosen by playwrights, in this case, the crisis of the traditional family model", explained Toni Casares, director of Sala Beckett, in the presentation of the cycle. In this way, two texts have been selected that, between comic scenes, hide a harsh social and academic criticism regarding the concept of nuclear family.
Lluïsa Castell and Georgina Latre meet again for the third time (after Consell familiar by Cristina Clemente and Vilafranca by Jordi Casanovas) as mother and daughter, interpreting a family drama written by the Mallorcan Marta Barceló and directed by Jordi Casanovas. "The expression to touch mare means to arrive at a safe place", explained its author. However, within a climate of supposed protection, crises can also be suffered. In this way, Esperança (the mother) and Empar (the daughter), "two names not chosen lightly", has nuanced the Mallorcan; they will have to face personal, problematic and painful experiences, after experiencing an unexpected event. Thus, the author intends to question the nature of the supposed "unconditional love" that we have for our family.
On the other hand, El desig del cor, a work by the British playwright Caryl Churchill and adapted and directed by Lucia Del Greco, is a complex and suggestive textual proposal, with a pattern of repetition and accumulation that, at first, "can disconcert to the public", explained Del Greco. However, this dramaturgical strategy "is used to materialize the experience of trauma", added the director. This explains the conflicts and abuses within the framework of a supposedly conventional family, which awaits the arrival of its daughter from Australia.
"The family is the first mirror of the society that we experience and, consequently, it is the first input of capitalism that infiltrates our way of relating to our environment," explained Del Greco. "However, I did not want to stage a play about good guys and bad guys, but rather offer a reading from all the open fronts of a family (father, mother, aunt, daughter) and how each one can promote a situation of abuse," he clarified. the director.
Tocar mare will be on the bill from November 9 to December 4 and, El desig del cor, from November 10 to 27. These two productions arrive at the Sala Beckett after having already been premiered, in the case of the work by Barceló at the Temporada Alta festival and, in the case of the proposal by Lucia Del Greco, at the Tantarantana theater in Barcelona. "At the Sala Beckett we believe that extending the life of works on stage is a very healthy practice for the world of theatre", claimed Toni Casares.
In addition, the cycle The family (or the family?) also offers activities related to the works, thanks to the collaboration with the UOC. On November 24, a round table is planned under the title The other families, to reflect on how "emotional contracts" are regulated within the family sphere; and on November 18, another round table will be organized entitled Roles, abuses and vulnerabilities, with the participation of Lucia Del Greco, to talk about the structures and regulations that weigh on family roles.
