Love letter (and goodbye) to the Pavón Kamikaze Theater
Holds the kamikaze Fran Lebowitz that theaters are important even for those who never go to them . We heard it in the Netflix series Suppose New York is a city . Suppose that Madrid is a city, suppose we want her to be dignified and humane . Suppose then that it is full of healthy and open theaters, museums and cinemas because they build and define it . Let's suppose. Let's suppose.
This weekend the Pavón Kamikaze Theater will close its doors. It will " for economic reasons ”, as its founders stated in a statement in December: Miguel del Arco, Israel Elejalde, Aitor Tejada and Jordi Buxó . We can say, more dramatically, that will lower the curtain for the last time . Let's do it: theater, after all, is drama. Drama is action, the Greeks affirmed, and there is room for tragedy and comedy, and from September 6, 2016, when it opened until this week, there has been much of both on the Kamikaze stage.
entrance to magic
This was one of those ideas so good that it aroused a “ why hasn't anyone thought of it before ”. The easy answer is because no one had been so kamikaze . The long one is longer. A theater company, the Kamikaze, buys an old theater, the Pavón , to turn it into a theater that was more than a theater and into “ a private theater with a vocation for public service ”. In a single sentence the word theater appears five times.
They had a good eye the building was beautiful and dragged its corresponding history, something that never exceeds . It was founded by a businesswoman, Francisca Pavon , who commissioned her building to the architect Theodore of Anasagasti . It was the 1920s, therefore, and since they were modern, they built it according to the Art-Deco of the moment. Since then the Pavón was a variety theater (Celia Gámez often went on stage), cinema and theater again. Sometimes it was active and sometimes abandoned, some seasons works were premiered, others were rehearsed and sometimes filmed in it: Pilar Miro filmed Beltenebros in the.
"The building was beautiful and dragged its corresponding history, something that never exceeds"
When the Kamikaze company bought it, it lived up to its name: maintaining a theater with private funds was a daunting and doomed task . He achieved it for almost five years with awards ( won the National Theater in 2017 ), tickets that were sold out in a short time and, as someone cheesy would say, the love of critics and audiences; that someone is us. The theater planned to close at the end of the contract, in June 2021, but the pandemic (sounds slightly to us) has accelerated their plans . But this is not a bitter letter, if anything, a sad one. It has been five intense years in which the Kamikaze has been, as its creators have affirmed, "something more than function" . More than one hundred shows of own and third party production have been represented; In addition, conferences, round tables, concerts, artistic residences, dramatized readings, meetings have been held... You can choose to be angry or celebrate this feat.
We will remember it with a sweet melancholy, like remembering a romance that should have lasted a little longer. as stated Lucina Gil, actress, director with Goya and assiduous to the theater : "It was nice while it lasted. Also, close like Greta Garbo”. Bethlehem Coca , singer of the group Niña Vintage, who liked to repeat work, she will miss “ the contrast between the container, a theater of life, with flavor, and the experimental, innovative, warm content . It was an experience, a mix of things.” In that it agrees, Alberto Rey, cultural journalist and another regular , who will miss “going to see something I didn't even know what it was, but it was by Kamikaze. Y the feel of real theater community , of recognizing faces in the stalls work after work”.
"And the feeling of a real community of theater people, of recognizing faces in the stalls play after play"
This theater was that safe place where there were no failed tickets. There could be works for all tastes, but they all treated you with respect. We will miss that respect . Also that one of the members appeared before the start of the function in the stalls, thanked us for going and told us to turn off the mobile.
This letter is also to thank the Kamikaze have given us for five years a type of plan . Said plan will end this weekend, when the door to Embajadores Street closes. It consisted of buying a ticket weeks in advance, choosing the right company, meeting one hour before to have a wine at Café Pavón, meet and greet familiar people in line, enter the theater, spend two hours , get out of it, talk about the play and go home. The theater is also that, its circumstances . That is why, as Lebowitz says, it is not necessary to go to know that all this was also important for those who were walking down the street and saw the line of people on the very wide sidewalk of the theater waiting to enter. It was important for the neighborhood, for the surrounding businesses, for the rest of the theaters in Madrid and even for those who were left without tickets for their plays. . It was important for everyone, except for those (tangible or intangible) who have dropped it.
"It was important for the neighborhood, for the surrounding businesses, for the rest of the theaters in Madrid and even for those who were left without tickets for their plays"
The Kamikaze company will continue to be active and touring, Café Pavón too Y the building will have another life . We will no longer be able to give away the Kamikaze on a birthday, nor participate in its full ritual, but we will remember when we went to see The Function to Do, The treatment, Iphigenia in Vallecas, pack, sisters or a Lorca from time to time; We will remember when we saw the Machi, she was such a beast, and when we left thinking hard after the misanthrope . And we will remember when we listened, sang and danced many songs courtesy of Paul Messiez , while in Madrid the snowfall of the century fell.
Thank you
This weekend, after the show I am who I am , the stalls will be emptied for the last time. That moment will be important even for those who have never been seated in the stalls. Theaters make the city rich and Madrid will be a little poorer, although there will always be a show to do.
This weekend the stalls will be emptied for the last time