he Directed his first theater play with more than 18 years. Today has 71 and a power overwhelming, which does not rest. The premises with which, in full franco, Mario Gas, began in the independent theater —to modify the conditions of work, renewing the aesthetic language and to find the commitment to ethical and ideological— are still intact, although the profession something has changed. “The artists we’ve lost some of that commitment because, as stated by a colleague of mine Catalan, during the Transition I decided the play was the director and now it seems that this decision is in the hands of the production, looking for other type of effects. I am very critical of many things, but we must recognize that today’s theater in Spain is an office full of talent, with people highly educated at all levels, actors, directors, playwrights, technicians, even though, unfortunately, that is still a laziness tremendous in the various Administrations to address the endemic problems that drag this profession,” said on Tuesday the director of scene after a trial of The Strada, a version of Gerard Vazquez from the film of Federico Fellini, that story, heartbreaking and unforgettable journey through the lives of three comedians street, between the ashes of the post-war period in Italy, which won the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 1956.
it Is exultant Mario Gas, dressed up with a beautiful and flowery scarf at the neck. “La Strada shows us a tremendous history of failures, survivals, the loves frustrated, the three comedians street attacked by the life and the world. It is something that, as far as I read the text I wanted so much to tell, regardless of the film of Fellini, a masterpiece that pervades the subconscious of everyone who has seen, is of the generation that is”, explains Gas, which has rejected to re-watch the film of the Italian director not to become contaminated and prevent the mimesis.
But that world heartbreaking that portrayed Fellini, those lives unhappy and tragic, these characters border installed in fear and survival that they try to love each other and are destroyed or they are destroyed, they emerge in all their splendor on the stage, in a role that director qualifies for road theatre, with the road and the circus as “metaphors of the human being in a depressed society”. Last night it premiered at the Teatro de la Abadía of Madrid this brilliant show of evocative images and scenes broken, starring Verónica Echegui, Alfonso Lara, and Alberto Iglesias.
As feisty as always, Mario Gas, addresses the situation of theater in Spain in a moment in which they turn 40 years of the creation of the National Dramatic Centre. “The CRC has Nerobet served many functions and very good. That said, I think it requires a profound renewal of the public theatres, with a presence more in the shadow of the Administration, and greater freedom for creators. I think there is a defeatism excessive appliances from the artistic centres of public Administration. The creator and the Authorities are looking for different things, another thing is that you can find. The Administration, which does not have clear criteria, that is greedy and outdated, is in the obligation to provide a public culture to the citizen, but not to interfere in how the creator takes place,” says the director, who was at the head of the Spanish Theater of Madrid, of municipal ownership, from 2004 to 2012, and under whose mandate was put into place by the Ships of Matadero, in Madrid.
Also regrets, Gas from the deterioration of the working conditions of artists. “The public theatres have to work in better conditions and provide more opportunities to research. The purchasing power of the actors has been reduced incredibly, as well as the weeks of rehearsals. There is to do deep reflection among all. Those who are now at the forefront of these centres of public ownership of what they are trying to do in the best way possible, but you also have to be brave, go down to the arena and not to forget that the theatre is at the service of society”, he says.
Gas laments the scarce contribution of public in Spain to the theaters —“the comparison with the countries of our environment gives blush, it is unbearable”— but also the little love that he feels the Spanish society towards its dramatic compared to, for example, with the anglo-saxon countries. “It’s not about to repeat that sentence of Fernando Fernán Gómez who, with his deep voice, said: ‘Here not likes the drama’, but there is something of truth there is in it. We, the people of the theatre, we must wake up, because, although I am optimistic, we must recognize that we are a little asleep and we looked too much to the belly button. We are required to find a true personal commitment to ethical with the society in which we live”.
