Silencio

Dressed in a formal suit in which he does not feel entirely at ease, in compliance with the preceptive protocol, the playwright, or perhaps an actress friend whom he has asked to represent him at the solemn ceremony, is about to be inducted into the Academy by delivering a speech entitled Silencio.

His audience are the other academicians with whom he shares the platform, and those who have come to accompany him this evening - family, friends, colleagues, dignitaries, strangers... He is going to talk about silence in life and in the theatre; perhaps also about the silence there is in his life and in his theatre. But above all, he is going to journey through theatrical or literary silences that have made an impression on his memory and on his imagination - the silence of Antigone, of The House of Bernarda Alba, of Letter to His Father, of Woyzeck, of Life is a Dream, of The Stronger, of The Great Inquisitor, of Chekhov’s fragile characters, of Beckett’s strange creatures, of Sancho Panza... And, overcome by his desire for theatre, he will go so far as to interpret them as if he were on stage.

As is the case with the audience, these silences may confront the writer of the speech and the speaker with the silences of their own lives. At any given moment, the speaker and the writer of the speech may well be tempted to be silent. Perhaps the very silence that underpins the speech and into which the speech delves, puts the speech itself in danger. And perhaps the most valuable thing of all, above and beyond the words, is finally just to be able to listen to the silence together.

Juan Mayorga