Grumelot Theater Training
It had to happen: the technology , internet, mobiles, drones have transformed our way of relating, of living and also to do theater . Because theater does not imitate life, it is a piece of life , so there are more and more creators who, instead of demonizing zoom, WhatsApp and algorithms, use them in their creative processes, combining the electricity of real bodies (their dangerous aerosols, their sweat, the heat transmitted by an organism, the vibration of his voice, his ability to make mistakes…), with the ubiquity, interactivity and manipulation that the virtual allows . After all, technology is not and has never been the enemy of ritual.
The Madrid company grumpy , specialized in adapting the classics to a contemporary language, has decided to fully explore some of these possibilities with the wonderful lamp , which is a very free adaptation of a non-dramatic text by Valle Inclán , where they hybridize physical experience and virtual experience in this way: every day of performance, a car driven by an actor and occupied by a small group of spectators embarks on a six-hour journey from the Teatro de La Abadía to the mountains of Madrid.
Simultaneously, a audiovisual equipment transforms that trip into a digital experience for 90 spectators that, in their houses , experience movement from stillness. The original musical composition by José Pablo Polo and Valle-Inclán's texts structure time, while the car crosses the space and stops from time to time: in an open-air space intervened by a sound installation, in a hermitage where an actress is waiting for them, in a theater where An actor explores the possibilities of language... The physical spectators of the physical journey are called “pilgrims” ; to those who follow the work through their computer and mobile phone, with the opportunity to interact with the performers of the show, "mystics" ; and to the spectators of the audiovisual part who cannot interact, "witnesses".
Grumelot Theater Training
the director of the play, Inigo Rodriguez-Claro , says that both he and Charlotte Gavino (author of the dramaturgy) had long been in love with this strange text by Valle-Inclán: “We had it on our bedside table for years but, because it wasn't staged, we weren't very sure what to do with it”. And it is that "The lamp" is an essay in the form of spiritual exercises that says things like: " Contemplation is an absolute way of knowing, a kind, delightful and quiet intuition through which the soul enjoys the beauty of the world, deprived of speech and in Divine Darkness. ”; either " The very quiet aesthetic is the meaning of things in a new glimpse ”; either " be like the nightingale, who does not look at the earth from the green branch where he sings ”. Although the director's favourite, and which appears several times in the production, is "the smallest moment of love is eternity". “By what Valle-meant that for him time is not a succession of instants, but a falling stone”, explains Íñigo Rodriguez-Claro.
“The format of the wonderful lamp it is very particular –explains Carlota Gaviño, the author of the dramaturgy–. It is a kind of secret book, of code, a bit also cabalistic that shows a modernist Valle Inclán fascinated by the esoteric, the occult, Freemasonry... The book is supposed to be a kind of puzzle that leads you to enlightenment . This material in particular is very unique and what we are trying to do is how to translate that and we can make that spiritual journey together. Valle's gaze is so lucid that, truly, it is timeless . You find things that he speaks to you about the present radically, as if he were a medium or a fortune teller”.
Grumelot Theater Training
Is it possible another way of living time? Valle Inclán believed so and Grumelot, too, which is why all "pilgrims" have to leave their mobiles in the glove compartment. Are they doing well? "Yes, because actually we're all looking forward to unplugging from hyperacceleration, of that constant flow of information and stimuli. If we carried the mobile in our hand during the trip, it would be impossible not to fall into the temptation of immortalizing every moment . But while you're taking pictures you can't stop to really listen and look." What is the desire of this trip: to be able to see through the "divine darkness".
In fact the wonderful lamp it is a search for what Valle called “ the ecstatic revelation ”, but here guided by The Guide, The Poet and The Alchemist , since the trip devised by grumelot fuses the role-playing game with the mystical experience. “Valle told us that there are three transits –explains the director– painful love, joyful love and love with renunciation and stillness ”. The same sections into which this piece is divided, although here renamed as "The stone" -which is destined for Palace of the Infante Don Luis in Boadilla del Monte; "The glass" -in the theater The Royal Coliseum Carlos III of San Lorenzo de El Escorial - Y "The Rose" , which takes pilgrims to the ruins of the Monastery of Santa María de Valdeiglesias in Pelayos de la Presa , an almost unknown authentic jewel of the Community of Madrid's heritage.
The wonderful lamp is part of the Madrid Autumn Festival program and can be seen until November 29.