The National Theater Throws House Out the Window with Els Watson

BarcelonaWatsonIt is the most ambitious work of the National Theater season, and is a special and unusual show for many reasons. The first, because it is a contemporary work by Englishwoman Laura Wade who gets into Jane Austen's unfinished novel (1775-1817) and tries to understand why she didn't finish it (and solve it your way). The second, for the theatrical game it proposes, with the author herself in the show, a mechanism conjured by the team directed by Josep María Mestres in order not to clarify anything, beyond the tangled plot of relatives and suitors who raise the first. One hundred pages that Austen left written (and which have just been published by Cal Carré with a translation by Nuria Sills). And thirdly, because it is such a big show that it is difficult to put it on in a non-public theatre, and it cannot afford the nineteen actors, “from 9 to 80 years old” – as Daphnis Baldoz says – who play the eighteen characters (two children double the character). “Watch it because we don't know when we will be able to do it again,” warned the National's director, Carme Portacelli, who was grateful for the “rain of millions” from the Catalan government that allowed them to go with fewer budget constraints.

But the show, which can be seen at the Sala Gran del TNC from February 8 to March 17, is not only a huge undertaking for the payroll, but also for the production bill, with translation by Joan Celent and choreography by John Maya. From Cocay Dantza, costumes by Gabriela Salaveri, original music by Iñaki Salvador and scenography by Paco Azurin “So strong and of great beauty” that “the house threw her out the window”: “I don’t want to know how much it cost,” admitted Josep María Mestres. Let’s not We forget that we are walking through the halls of the English countryside at the turn of the seventeenth century.

Laura Wade is one of the contemporary English playwrights with the most preaching today (with titles such as… Luxurious I Home is my love), and this marks his first appearance on our platforms. His approach, which is also the play's approach, is to understand why Jane Austen stopped. He began writing it in the middle of his production, after the first three novels (Sensation and sensitivity, pride and prejudice I Northanger Abbey(And before starting work on the last three)Mansfield Park, whatever I to convince) and preserves the “literary height, intelligence, creativity and unique sense of humor” of the author who has become a world classic, as the director explains.

The story begins with the return of Watson's sister to her home, whose education was paid for by her aunt, and the process of marrying her off to one of the three suitors who were engaged. “It was pointed out that his life was very similar to what he was explaining, he had a sick clergyman father, he had just turned down a marriage proposal from a rich man and apparently he wanted to put him in a drawer,” Mistress explains. However, two centuries passed until Wade decided to give it a contemporary perspective, “with the utmost respect for Jane Austen, but also with the utmost commitment to today's society,” Mistress explains. “You have to let yourself be swept along by the emotional currents and the surprises. For the depth and because it stimulates the intelligence, but also because it's challenging and funny. The spirit permeates everything Jane Austen writes, it has beauty and light, it's also its dark parts,” says Mistress. It is a philosophical comedy.”

The main protagonists are the author (Laura Aubert) and Emma Watson (Laia Manzanares), one of the four Watson siblings (along with Paola Malia, Mireya Ilamola and Mark Reuss). Among the ranks of the veterans are Jordi Panacolocha, Mercy Aranega, Luisa Castile and Vina Ríos, and among the youngsters are Guillem Balart, Daphnis Baldoz and Laura Bow. For Laia Manzanares, the work is “deep and beautiful,” but above all “it talks about life through play”: “This work is an amusement park!”, she exclaims. Park opening hours are two and a half hours, including intermission.