“I am captivated by the idea of approaching individual reflection with a personal, political and social perspective”
Euskaraz irakurri: “Txundigarria iruditzen zait hausnarketa indibidualari begirada pertsonal, politiko eta sozialaz heltzea”
The theater company Tanttaka He premieres his new project this Thursday, April 11, at the Victoria Eugenia theater in San Sebastián. In this work, Tanttaka immerses himself in the universe of the popular French writer Edward Louis (Hallencourt, 1992), who dissects in his novels the political violence of which the popular classes are above all the object, but also the subject; In his speech, brave to the point of self-critical honesty, there is no room for condescension.
With address of Fernando Bernués and starring the actor Eneko Sagardoythe theater company presents the adaptation of the novel in the San Sebastian theater Struggle and metamorphosis of a woman (2021), in which the narrator recounts the imperfect emancipation of his mother, a woman subjected by patriarchy and precariousness who one day “began to combine her life into the future.”
Bernués tells us about the work that, far from revealing something we don’t know, confronts us with what we know but don’t want to see.
Why choose Édouard Louis and why Struggle and metamorphosis of a woman?
I have been attracted from the beginning by Édouard Louis’ point of view, his way of approaching literature, fiction and autofiction. We were already on the verge of making a version of Who killed my father, but the pandemic stopped the project.
Then it appeared Struggle and metamorphosis of a woman and it caught us much more. I am captivated by this man’s idea: approaching individual reflection with a personal, political and social perspective, all together.
There are few times in which someone who has had the opportunity to transcend class, to put into operation what is called the social elevator, recognizes himself as complicit in the deterioration of life and in the violence of which his mother has been the victim. object for many years. All this without forgetting his own condition as a victim of other violence for being a maladjusted, precarious and homosexual child.
How has the work of adapting the text from the book to the work been?
Harkaitz Cano has been the one who has synthesized and distilled the story. Conceptually, there was not much to intervene; It was simply necessary to condense the novel, which, despite being short, always lasts longer than the theater can absorb.
We also had the will to be essential, because I think that is one of the characteristics of Édouard Louise: he writes novels that are not very long and very sharp, both personally and politically.
Harkaitz has had the great virtue of distilling the entire story into a short piece, fifty-something minutes long. I think the adaptation picks up the novel perfectly.
From the stage direction, how does the focus open on stage, within this monologue, to offer a place to the mother to whom the protagonist addresses?
It is true that Struggle and metamorphosis of a woman It is written in the first person, it is Édouard Louis who speaks and thinks about his mother’s transformation based on a circumstantial event. But it is a look that contains a dialogue, the mother is completely present.
The mother’s presence was vital for me. That’s why on stage we have adapted an idea that I really like: the mother talks much less but there is a camera recording a close-up of her, which is seen on two screens.
The audiovisual presence of the mother, very present for the viewer, shows the imagination of Édouard Louis.
The metamorphosis that Édouard Louis narrates is activated when the female protagonist becomes aware that she can be a political subject. What role do you think theater and the arts in general have in raising citizens’ political awareness?
I believe that art and culture serve to confront us with others, to put ourselves in the shoes of other realities and have a social and collective view of life.
It is not easy to intervene in the world in an obvious didactic or pedagogical way through the arts, but I do believe that they have a great engine to share other realities, other dreams and transcend the most immediate realities that we live.
I believe that the spaces of beauty and reflection that put us in the shoes of other people and in the face of other conflicts and situations serve to become aware of how one is, and that intimate thought can activate decisions within us.
Sharing other realities can invite you to reflect on your story and make decisions.
Eneko Sagardoy in ‘Fight and metamorphosis of a woman’
The novel walks the fine line between autobiography, autofiction and fiction. How does an adapter of the work experience the commitment to the writer and, at the same time, the need to separate the writer from the narrator?
In fact, in France there are debates about the level of verisimilitude in the work of Édouard Louis because everything is written from such an autobiographical perspective that one does not doubt that this has happened to the author. This is also due to the ability of great writers to generate that drive in the reader; There are people who have never seen a lion and are able to masterfully convey an encounter between a lion and a man.
In this case, it seems to me to be the most superfluous part. Louis invites a reflection on the violence in which he lived and his ability to use the social elevator to occupy a more middle-class living space that was not reserved for him. That is exciting and very suggestive.
Regardless of whether everything is true or not, regardless of the doses of fiction and autobiography that the book contains, everything is truthful and plausible. As an adapter, whenever a book challenges me and I adapt it, I try to be faithful to what the author proposes. We do not want to reinvent anything, but rather rewrite the novel from a scenic grammar.
I trust that everyone who has read the novel will see that what we have put on stage is what Édouard Louis tells it, adjusted to a theatrical medium.
The Basque version of the work will arrive in September. What can you tell us?
Yes that’s how it is. We made the decision not to overlap both versions, to do one first and then the other, because it is a monologue with a great charge and great intensity for the actor.
The translation, directly from French to Basque, is the work of Danele Sarriugarte.
Source: Eitb
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
