Bárbara Mestanza questions the culture of cancellation
Cut off a foot with a chainsaw “it is born from the will to talk about guilt”, he explains Barbara Mestanzadirector, playwright and protagonist of the play. A fault, he points out, “that we sustain structurally”. That’s why I wanted to approach the culture of cancellation from a new perspective: “I didn’t want to focus on the victim or the aggressor, but on everything else, on those who are constantly accompanying this type of situation”. The work highlights how “tiring and tedious it can be to live in a time of social revolution”.
After the success of his autofiction proposal dirtyMestanza now opts for a thriller. Two journalists, played by herself and by Rosa Boladeraspublish articles that reveal years of sexual abuse and trigger a massive cancellation of directors and politicians in the sector. This burst activates the movement Me too that the country needed, until a piece of news turns everything upside down: Richard Roigone of the attackers, tried to commit suicide. His daughter, played by Julia Molinswill call into question this justice that had cost them so much to achieve. Despite the change of record, “I think irony and cynicism will accompany me all my life”, affirms Mestanza.
Amputate what bothers you
The playwright finds the inspiration for the title in a documentary where a man, a few seconds after a snake bite, decides to amputate his foot with a chainsaw. “I think this is what we do at a social level: everything that bothers us, what we don’t understand, we quickly amputate”, he explains. Based on this metaphor, he questions the existence of the so-called culture of cancellation: “I have seen powerful aggressors continue to work normally”. “On the other hand, many companies have indeed been canceled due to their political content”, he complains.
In this context, he is not interested in focusing “on any specific aggressor”, but showing “the few tools we have as a society to manage these situations”. Mestanza believes that the next step for feminism should be an internal review and the ability to “ask for forgiveness among ourselves”, while recognizing that often “we are also agents of a patriarchal structure that we reproduce without realizing it”.
Stir through the fun
with Cut off a foot with a chainsawMestanza wants to stir but also entertain: “I would like to add a point of pure fun”. “At the same time, I would love for them to leave wanting to go have a drink and debate from the point of view of the laughter and humor of the play”, he concludes.
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