–Return to Cádiz and with three functions, which is not usual in the Falla and less so in this time of pandemic and restrictions.
–For us it is always the most important function. It is unavoidable. Deep down, while you are writing, rehearsing a play or doing a performance, you think about how the audience will react, and you think of your lifelong audience, your people, and you think of Cádiz. Is it very cathety, maybe? Yes? Well, what do you want me to tell you, it’s like that (laughs). I imagine it happens to everyone, that you want the people you love to like you.
– What gust of wind brings Fedra and Medea to Cádiz?
– Well, look, the idea was to make a tragedy to the Cadiz. After having played comedy with Lysístrata, we wondered how a tragedy could be in Cádiz. And you always remember the times in the street that you stop with someone to chat and ask how they are. He tells you that he comes from the hospital … And he is telling you a drama but you have to laugh at the way we have to tell things, to approach them. That was a bit of the starting point. And thinking of the great themes of tragedy, destiny, the relationship of the gods, with the elements that are not in our power to handle, and we think of the power of the lift, of a wind that almost has a magical power, which at the people upset her, a wind that, as if it were an oracle, encourages us to put the washing machine … This power that is almost like a magical realism of García Márquez, but in Cádiz, and then we put this element that almost drives the woman crazy. people, an element of tragedy. And then inspired by a wonderful song, Wild is the wind, which has been sung by Nina Simone or David Bowie, speaking of the power of love, the wild wind, human passions, which are also very tragic. It’s a bit of that hodgepodge made from Cádiz.
– And are these two classic myths consciously sought, along with Euripides who writes them, for their feminist significance?
–Not really, there is no conscious search … We, of course, are feminists, how could we not be! But it is true that we never seek a feminist reading of our work, not even when choosing things. Rather, it is with women, yes. They are tragic heroines. More than 2,000 years ago someone had the immense and wonderful idea to write about female figures. You see the classics and there are some female characters, who at that time were played by men, with a wonderful female psychology that makes them irresistible. Every actress has wanted at some point to play Fedra, Medea, Las Bacchantes … They are characters of an incredible dimension, they are transgressors, they are at the limit of the moral, the amoral, they are characters that allow you to explore the most darkest and most forbidden parts of the human mind. And they are women! Well, let’s do them, I don’t care if it has a feminist reading or not, I say it honestly. I am a feminist, but I don’t think about feminism when I believe, when I work, that would be for me like setting limits.
– In any case, Euripides gives that voice to women, a voice unusual at that time.
– Yes, but we first built the fable, we built the story we wanted to tell and one day, suddenly, we saw that it was Medea. Within the contemporary history of Cádiz that we wanted to tell, suddenly one day these characters emerged. We saw that a character, if we tighten the nuts, could become Phaedra, and if we tighten a little more, this is an impressive ‘wiggle’.
– Will there be a vaccine against machismo?
“That, unfortunately, we are not going to see.” I’m not going to see it for sure, future generations will see it. Even I have, unconsciously, many macho prejudices because it is the education I have received. And a very important feminist said it: “I am sitting on a plane, suddenly the pilot speaks and it is a woman. And I think: that will be the stewardess … ”. I admit it, that it still happens to me. It is not just a question of men, it is an issue that concerns us all, it is a generational issue. It will take many generations because the mentality does not change overnight.
– Does the play have any special nod to the performance in Cádiz or is it the same one that you took to Soria two days ago?
– No, no, it’s exactly the same, we are not going to change anything. And even so, people are going to say: “If this is Cádiz, this is how they are going to understand it there.” And there are a couple of things that only someone from Cádiz can understand, and someone of a certain age from Cádiz, which we also say in Soria. The public does not understand it there but they will not stop understanding the function for that phrase we put. We allow ourselves that little license, but it’s built in from the start.
– How was the work with José Troncoso, what has been his contribution?
–Troncoso is a brother of ours, we have known each other since the days of the University. We had wanted to work together for so long … And the possibility arose when we wanted to make a tragedy, because he has studied this subject a lot. We asked him to advise us, he was in a few rehearsals, he did a small three-day workshop. He marked us the code of the work, which without his advice would not be the same. He instructed us in the tragedy. Besides, he speaks our language, he is from Cádiz. He is from the ball, and we from La Viña, from San Juan … It is a common language.
– Is ‘The wind is wild’ still left?
Yes, I hope so. We already have a lot of work for next year and we are already getting ready to see what the next project will be, which is now like a responsibility after the award. You create expectations in your future job.
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