For internal reasons at the Teatre Lliure, Julio Manrique has not yet been able to give the press conference to present his project as the new director, but this morning not even the witches of Macbeth could prevent him from presenting the new staging of the Scottish play, which will be premieres next Thursday.
On the porch that overlooks the Margarida Ernest Villegas, the actor who will now play Macbeth, has praised this decision that honors him, and jokes that he does not know what he will do now with the two tickets he had bought for the premiere.
Thus, this February the inauguration of the new director, supported by Ivan Benet, coincides with the premiere of this new production by the Teatre Lliure, which has been translated, adapted and directed by Pau Carrió, who assures that it contains the best verses of Shakespeare.
“It is an illusion shared by everyone that it is the first work that Julio presents – declares Carrió –. Juan Mayorga says that the theater has to be a space of peace and freedom for humanity. Macbeth explores the worst possibilities of humanity. Maybe exploring them, going down to hell, may help us exorcise them and we achieve it. These fears that dominate the character, that prevent him from believing in others, in friends, in women, perhaps we will be able to change them and convince ourselves that heaven is on earth."
Next to Villegas, Laia Marull plays Lady Macbeth, and the list is completed with twelve other names: Moha Amazian, Joan Amargós, Pepo Blasco, Pep Cruz, Pol López, Carles Martínez, Alba Pujol, Xavier Ricart, Marc Rodríguez, Marc Soler, Júlia Truyol and Mar Ulldemolins. “These performers are one of the best representations of the country's talent,” says the director, who explains how he chooses them: “When I read I already make faces, I take the photos of the performers and hang them up.”
How does Marull see his character? “Everyone knows, even without knowing her, that Lady Macbeth is evil number 1. The play tells us about ourselves throughout the story, unfortunately. She talks about staying in power apart from power. Maybe you wanted to do something better, something good for the community, and in the end you just fight to support yourself.” “The work connects us with the present,” says Villegas. Living in fear is not living. Macbeth talks about doubt, fear, remorse and, above all, how to survive your actions, which explode in your brain.
Carrió adds: “It is the darkest work, in all its images. There is a moment when the sun rises and no one believes it. Macbeth prefers that the world sink, and all the fragments contain these reverberations. It makes me think about what things we would be able to do to stay in power, to get something we want.” The director has already made four Shakespeares: “And when they ask me, I tell them that he is like the Christian who prays the rosary every day.”
Pep Cruz, the oldest performer, declares: “I only do theater when I'm excited, and this one is very exciting. They say the bad thing about Shakespeare is that even soldiers have ideas. Carrió has common sense, which is the least common of the senses. He has this work inside him and understands it deeply. In rehearsals, any question that arose, he had an answer. He has allowed me to play a king to Duncan, a little horny, a little Monty Python.” And he finishes: “If it were done today, Macbeth's witches would be the media,” amid general laughter.
Carrió has set the adaptation in the First World War: “I looked at photographs of field hospitals and the flu pandemic, before our pandemic. Macbeth is a war play, with power terribly masculinized, but it does not happen on the battlefield, but in the castles, which are filled with the dead. Who are the witches? Women expelled from the professorship, women who are not allowed to practice medicine. And as nurses, they enter and leave the room without anyone paying attention,” she concludes.
