A house, two women and a lot of fear

To scare the theater is, for many, an impossible mission. Sergi Belbel he knows it and, precisely for this reason, he tries again after experiences like Rural tourism. The playwright and director premieres at Teatre Gaudí The cottagea piece of psychological horror starring Anna Carreno i Gemma Deusedaswhich can be seen until February 22. The work places the viewer at the center of a suffocating universe, marked by emotional violence, the fragility of identity and a constant threat, both internal and external.

“It’s impossible to scare people in the theater, but since I like horror movies, I want to try it again,” he declares Belbelwhich defines The cottage as “a delirious exercise in the impossible”. The piece begins on a stormy night, a classic of the genre, and places the action in an old house, dark and isolated from the world, where two women live trapped in a relationship marked by the victim-executioner game and by a threat that seems to come from outside.

Without wanting to reveal key details of the plot, the director says that it is about “two women locked in a dark house” and that the work articulates two layers of terror: an intimate violence, which unfolds in the relationship between the protagonists, and an external violence that works as a metaphor for the current moment. “You only have to watch the news to realize that nothing is certain and that anything is possible,” he points out.

Gemma Deusedas

One of the central elements of the montage is the play of fragmented identities: the characters change names, personalities and even memories every time they enter and leave a space that seems to have a life of its own. This constant intensity converts The cottage in a demanding interpretive challenge. “There is a great intensity from the beginning that is maintained throughout the work”, he points out goddesseswhile Carreno highlights the vocal and physical wear and tear involved in the piece: “It’s a great vocal challenge, because you have to speak, shout and cry 100%”.

An immersive experience

The staging opts for a format that “breaks the rules” and turns the function into a 360-degree experience. The stage is located in the center of the room, surrounded by four bleachers, and a zero row is added that allows some spectators to experience the work from the same hall of the house. However, Belbel he makes it clear: “This is not Horroland or the witch’s train. We don’t touch anyone or involve anyone; you only have perceptions.”

Anna Carreno

Although The cottage is the first direct incursion of Belbel in theatrical horror, interest in the genre comes from afar. The project was born more than twenty years ago as a tribute to What happened to Baby Jane?and it has been resumed in different stages until taking definitive form during the pandemic. In addition to the classic starring Bette Davis i Joan Crawfordthe work dialogues with references like psychosis, the fog, The glow or the exorcistalways from a point of view focused on psychological terror. “The terror is mainly mental, but there is also some blood and liver”, warns the director.

“It is a reflection on horror in all areas, also in human relations”

With this proposal Sergi Belbel takes on the challenge of making the audience tremble from close proximity, without gratuitous artifices, and to explore why horror—and especially female terror—remains a territory full of uncomfortable questions: “It’s a reflection on horror in all areas, also in human relationships.”

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