Calixto Bieito condenses the English author's historical dramas into a theatrical production
with José María Pou in the cast and premiered at the Arriaga theatre in Bilbao.
RAQUEL VIDALES, Bilbao
Thursday 17 February. Seven o'clock in the evening at the Arriaga Theatre in Bilbao. Erresuma / Kingdom / Reino / Reino is presented in Spanish, a show directed by Calixto Bieito that synthesises Shakespeare's historical dramas, premiered a week earlier in Basque on the same stage. On the stage, conspiracies, espionage, assassinations of kings, betrayals, conspiracies, banishments take place. A fratricidal battle for power in 15th century England between two related families, the Lancastrians and the Yorks, which led to the War of the Two Roses. Meanwhile, political life in 21st century Spain on Thursday seems to be a carbon copy of what is happening on stage: from the early hours of the morning knives are flying between two sister families for control of the Popular Party. It is impossible not to think about it during the performance.
Fact and fiction converge with unusual force in this performance, but with Shakespeare nothing is ever accidental. There is a reason why he is the universal classic par excellence: every historical event or human emotion seems to find a reflection in one of his texts. Even more so in this ambitious show that selects crucial scenes from eight plays: Richard II. The two parts of Henry IV, Henry V, the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III. It is Calixto Bieito's big bet this season for the Bilbao coliseum, whose artistic direction he has been exercising since 2016, in parallel to that of the Basel theatre in Switzerland. As radical, heterodox and wild as one expects from the works of this creator who has achieved international fame precisely for that reason. There are 11 performers on stage, all from the fertile pool of Basque actors except the veteran José María Pou, who at 77 years of age is stepping into the shoes of a character that suits him like a glove, the quarrelsome and boastful Falstaff. This is the third time that Pou has taken part in one of Bieito's many Shakespeare plays in both theatre and opera: in 2004 he starred in his King Lear and in 2012 he took part in Forest, another madness that mixes several of the Bard's texts, extracting only the passages that take place in forests. We now see Richard II (Eneko Sagardoy) imprisoned after being dethroned by his cousin Henry IV (Joseba Apaolaza) and already sensing that he is going to be assassinated. We witness the moment when Henry V (Lander Otaola) is crowned and disowns his mentor and fellow reveler, Pou's Falstaff: "I don't know you, old man". We also see Henry VI (Roldo Olabarri) defeated by Joan of Arc (Ainhoa Etxebarria) and his wife, the fierce Marguerite d'Anjou (Ylenia Baglietto), the great instigator of the War of the Two Roses. And finally, Richard III, played by an actress (Miren Gaztañaga) who gives a twist to the famous final monologue of Shakespeare's most wicked of the wicked, before he fell in battle: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse! His death ended the war between the Lancastrians and the Yorks, not because either side won, but because their fratricidal struggles consumed them and a third family, the Tudors, took advantage to install themselves on the throne.
A word to the wise. The day after the performance, in a meeting with this newspaper, Calixto Bieito, Ylenia Baglietto and José María Pou are still trying to digest the political context that unexpectedly enveloped the premiere. An avid newspaper reader, Pou is clear about it: "The reading
that the spectators were able to make yesterday had to be influenced by what was happening outside. Sometimes these coincidences happen and it's wonderful because it gives more sense to what we do".
"I don't like to tell people what to think," says the director.
"What the bard wrote fits any situation", says Ylenia Baglietto
Fact and fiction
Baglietto seconds him and adds: "This shows us once again that what Shakespeare wrote can fit perfectly into any situation in life", the actress stresses.
But Pou continues: "In the same vein, I have another reflection: reality in recent years seems to always surpass fiction and the consequence is that the public is no longer amazed by anything when they go to the theatre, to the cinema or to a museum. No matter how much you want to provoke, stimulate or even piss off, you don't succeed. Not because reality is harsher or more violent than it used to be - just look at what Shakespeare wrote - but because the media broadcast it to us live every day. How can you compete with spectacles like the storming of the Capitol? Of course you want to buy popcorn to watch the news! But all that has numbed us as viewers.
In person, Bieito seems the antithesis of his shows. He speaks little and quietly, almost whispering: "I don't like doing theatre to tell people what to think. My version is not really focused on power struggles, but rather on the characters. How a ruler can lose his mind when he is in power. In any case, it has many layers for each person to draw their own conclusions".
Nothing could be further from the director's intention than to modulate a political message with this montage. In Pou's words, what he does is to construct an abstract "artistic magma" in which he invites both the actors and the audience to immerse themselves in order to reinterpret reality as if they were observing it for the first time. In Erresuma / Kingdom / Reino, a title that reproduces the same word in Basque, English and Spanish due to the involvement of the three languages in the production, with adaptation into Basque by Bernardo Ataja, he turns the stage into a kind of white box that fills with blood throughout the performance. "I conceive of it as a museum room where different paintings follow one after the other", explains the director. It begins with all the actors seated around a table. It is not known if everything has already happened or is about to happen because the living are confused with the dead, but the whole gives off a feeling of profound despondency. "Life is a process of demolition", sums up Bieito, quoting Scott Fitzgerald. The play will be on until Sunday at the Arriaga and will then begin a tour of Spain, the next stops being Pamplona, Madrid, A Coruña, Getxo, Santander and Seville. Erresuma / Kingdom / Reino. Arriaga Theatre of Bilbao. Version, direction and stage space: Calixto Bieito. Until 27 February.
Fuente: El País
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