Carmen Polo, satire and heritage in Tantarantana
Until February 9, the Tantarantana Theater recovers Lady dictatorshipa creation of the company Picohueso sisters. Performed by Josep Orfila and Lluki Portas, who also assumes the direction, the show is a reflection on the legacies of Francoism in today’s society. To do so, it starts from a satirical portrait of Carmen Polowife of the dictator Franco, in the purest revised style of the heart.
“The figure of Carmen Polo is the perfect excuse to talk about the legacy that Franco’s morality has left us in this country”, explains the director, adding: “Above all, it serves us to address the concept of hunts: the hunts from Carmen to her necklaces, Franco’s hunt for Carmen, the hunts for the upper classes and even the ultra-right’s hunts for vulnerable people”.
A reflection on hunting and inheritance
The company proposes a reflection on the heritage of a dark age through humor, criticism and an aesthetic that captures the contradiction between the superficiality of a heart magazine and the rawness of the story it tells. This approach allows for a dramaturgical game that exposes how the past still lives in the less obvious corners of the present. “What is Spain? Grandfather’s farm. This is what Franco’s granddaughter used to say when she was little. Fifty years later, this farm is still owned by the same families, and hunting is more fashionable than ever”, comments the company.
Lady dictatorship retrieve audiovisual resources that had already been used a Excalibur and other stories of dead animalsand delve into a format that mixes humor, surreality and tragedy. According to Portas, fascism is “a monster that is found in corners where you least expect it, in steel-toed boots, in the mouth of a policeman who criticizes your clothes or even in the small Carmen Polo that we all carry inside”.
The work also addresses episodes of historical violence, such as the murders of Sonia Rescalvo, Lucrecia Perez i Guillem Agullówhich are disguised on stage as hunts by Carmen Polo herself. This story is brought to the limit of satire with the invention of the fictional magazine Holi! and a tone of tragicomedy that contrasts with the cruelty of the events narrated.
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