Victoria Szpunberg: “Exile can be extrapolated to many personal stories”
From April 24 to June 1 the TNC premieres its own production. Victoria Szpunberg signs the original idea and the direction of The third escapea fiction built from the exile episodes of his family. From Ukraine to Argentina, until you reach Barcelona. With this work he becomes the first woman to write and directs the Sala Gran. We talked to her when just a week and a half ago they have started their rehearsals.
Victoria Szpunberg
The trigger
In 2007, pregnant and with an Iberian scholarship, Szpunberg immersed himself to investigate his roots: the exile of his parents and the memory of the Argentine dictatorship. The work borne fruit of the trilogy My grandfather did not go to Cuba (My parents, yes), The Favorite Brand of the Hermanas Clausman and The memory of a ludisiathree pieces with very different languages, few characters and a conventional duration. They premiered in Barcelona, throughout the state and even internationally, but the years passed and the question was still latent. “I wanted to add the story of my grandparents, who are not Argentinians and who also had to flee, and I wanted to do it from a more comic, epic, tragicomic place, with music … I imagined something bigger.”
This, in addition to the equivocal generated by his last name (“ I do not know why, always say Spunsberg ”) and his daughter’s interest in finding out if Szpunberg is of Ukrainian origin, of the Austro-Hungarian or Argentine Empire, he aligned with the definitive trigger: the proposal of Carme Portacelli —After the premiere ofThe weight of a body In the small room – to create a production for the large room. “To tell you I made a small draft and in four days I came out almost the first act. I was very clear. The second, too, but the plot was harder. And the whole third was missing.”
He immediately felt the need to “look for a accomplice, write all this alone would have been a suicide” and, as at other times, he has set up with Albert Pijuan. “A novelist was needed because there are epic parts, more narrated … They were put two years ago, before gestating The categorical imperative That so many joys is reporting them. “And going, going doing, we made it very big. I don’t know if sixty characters appear! There are three different times and many transitions.”
Is and is not
The third escape It is a story based on real facts, but it is not self -fiction: “ I don’t like people who define themselves as a victim or who want to tell us their lives. It generates rejection when the self appears so directly. I am interested in dramaturgical elaboration, the construction of fiction or, in any case, the aesthetics. Being too hooked on the identity question draws him artistic, discursive and honesty perspective. ”.
The work relates the journey of a family forced to go into exile since the 1920’s for socio-political reasons. They will leave Ukraine in Argentina to reach Barcelona, and so far as not to make spoilers. Despite the obvious parallels, he states: “ This is not my story. It is so fun to play! There are my things, my exiled friends, children of exiles … We have made a mixture and we do not have to explain what is true and what is not. It is a mixed work that allows us to freedom to mix breeds, languages, theater codes … ”.
The show reflects on the value of democracy and the crudeness of exile. “Having to leave your country because otherwise they kill you … it’s hard. You lose everything. We had a house with a garden and overnight we had to hide and run away.” And at the same time, it is a cry to move forward despite the difficulties. It is passed through many emotions and promises hard scenes. “When we read it, we were crying at some point. It will touch many people, exile can be extrapolated to many personal stories.”
And finally… the large room
Victoria Szpunberg is the first woman to write and directs to the TNC’s big room. “I am among excited and flipped, but when I think so many men have done it I try to go empowered. I am 50 years old and I have been working for more than 30. Knowing so much the material and feeling accompanied by “an impressive team” is making it enjoy the process. Has the interpretation of Clear safe, Carles Pedragosa, Ton Vieira and ten more selected actors after a year of casting.
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