Teatro Español y Naves del Español
Living Arts International Gathering Africa Moment'21 celebrates this year its 5th edition in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona, an unprecedented edition with a double itinerary, which presents proposals of great innovation and artistic quality by leading figures on the...
#DEALGÚNTIEMPOAESTAPARTE2021
The starting point for this play is the harrowing monologue that Max Aub wrote in 1939, during the first months of his Republican exile in Paris. His text describes the desperate plight of a woman, Emma, who, following Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria, finds herself dispossessed of everything. Although she has converted to Christianity, Jewish blood runs through her veins. Even though she herself might well have voted for the Nazis, this changes her perspective on the world and she can only hope that one day freedom will come.
Eighty years later, what have we done with this freedom? This is the question that gives rise to “#Dealgúntiempoaestaparte2021”, a play that interweaves the existential crisis of Aub’s character with that of two modern-day girls. If back then the oppressor was Nazism, what produces anguish and depression today? If back then, freedom of thought was coerced through a single channel, does the saturation of information of doubtful veracity allow us to be more discerning today? If the end of the Second World War saw the rise of democracy and the welfare state, are we facing a major crisis of capitalism after the pandemic? The alienation that is encouraged by entertainment, the toxic nature of the networks and the excessive number of stimuli are the tentacles that feed our disproportionate need to consume, the sole objective of which is to achieve a happiness based on what we have rather than on what we are. But does that make us really happy? Is it our deepest longing? Do we actually choose what we want, our leaders and role models, or is real freedom still a right we have yet to achieve? And in this context, does returning to normality actually make any sense?
I believe that we are now on the threshold of a new change. Establishing a dialogue with Aub’s text seems to me to be an opportunity to look to the past so that those who have gone before can shed light on this at times rather somber present.
Maite Pérez Astorga
By Max Aub
Directed and adapted by Maite Pérez Astorga
With: María Pujalte and Ana Rujas
Set design: Lua Quiroga Paul
Costume design: Paola de Diego
Lighting design: Juan Gómez-Cornejo
Sound y visual design: Daniel Jumillas - JUMI
Photo: Sergio Parra
Assistant director: Nacho Redondo
A co-production between Teatro Español, ProduccionesOff and Vania
Iconos de accesibilidad proporcionados por Teatro Accesible