Sergio Peris-Mencheta, stage director: “We should be taught to die, and it is the only thing we are not taught” | Culture | EUROtoday

According to multiverse theories, roughlythe cosmos is branching: infinite tales in parallel universes. Thus, the British playwright Nick Payne wrote Constellationsthe place the completely different prospects within the lifetime of a pair are explored, in successive scenes: how they meet by likelihood, how the primary kiss comes about or how infidelity seems.

The actor and director Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Madrid, 50 years outdated) translated the textual content initially of the 2010s, however solely now has he introduced it to the stage, on the National Dramatic Center (CDN), including new layers of risk: likelihood decides initially the 2 actors who will play the couple (from a forged of six), and likewise one of many 4 musical settings. Each operate is unpredictable and completely different, yet another universe amongst lots.

In Constellations Also necessary is the sickness (the one circumstance that appears inevitable), which resonates with the leukemia that Peris-Mencheta has overcome, though he continues to cope with the “collateral damage” of the bone marrow transplant.

Ask. Does the thought of ​​the multiverse fear you or calm you?

Answer. It calms me down. Above all, after the journey I’ve been by. I do not imagine in free will. I feel we come to reside a concrete expertise.

P. Does future exist?

R. I feel there’s a story that, indirectly, is written. We might have had one thing else, however that is the case we’ve had. Of course, I additionally suppose that there’s free will within the choice of the right way to settle for the blows and victories. We can redirect life’s setbacks.

P. He has theorized, because of the content material of the work, in regards to the determine of the observer, central to quantum mechanics.

R. I overlook in regards to the viewer once I put collectively a piece, I do not suppose a lot about whether or not they’ll prefer it or not, or in the event that they discover it related. If it resonates, surprise, chocolateAs they are saying, excellent combo. Although in any other case I do take it into consideration. I already stated [Peter] Brook that the theater is one which crosses and one which observes… Since I learn the textual content I noticed that there was a tribute to the observer. Until the curtain opens, the work doesn’t exist; Until the field is opened, we do not know if Schrödinger’s cat is alive or useless.

P. That is, he thinks in regards to the viewer, however with out serious about the viewer.

R. Something like that. It has by no means obsessed me, that is why I proceed directing, as a result of I do not make a residing from it: I make a residing from performing. Management just isn’t sufficient to reside on, you don’t have any selection however to dedicate your self to instructing. As a director I do what fits me, as a result of as an actor I do what fits another person.

P. Science offers superb metaphors to artwork. Are you a fan?

R. I by no means have been. Science was simply one other topic, simply as Lope de Vega is for others. Now, when my youngsters include their grades, I inform them: “What do you like? Go for it. You have to get rid of what you don’t like, but above all, focus on what you like.” So this has been a possibility to delve into science. Theater is my excuse to find the world.

P. His personal life, his journey by sickness, has turn into tremendously intertwined together with his public determine. He has spoken very overtly about it and it resonates within the work, which additionally offers with most cancers.

R. When they gave me the prognosis, I felt very properly accompanied by my folks, within the United States, the place I had the remedy coated by the actors’ union. But I additionally understand that I’m utterly alone in my private expertise. Only I’m in my boots. It is the loneliness of the one who sees the wolf’s ears.

P. And he decides to inform it.

R. I’ve by no means talked about my private life. But this time I talk it in case it may be of use to others who could also be in that absolute loneliness. What might have been a hazard, I feel was successful. I acquired hundreds of messages of help, some I nonetheless have not been ready to reply to. This 12 months a documentary about your entire course of might be launched, co-produced by El Terrat and directed by Marta [Solaz, su pareja] me too.

P. A narrative of enchancment?

R. That did not curiosity us a lot. Rather, it tells how the artistic helps the therapeutic, as a result of I directed the work 14.4 remotely, from the hospital room.

P. It hasn’t stopped!

R. I have never stopped. The final two years have most likely been the most efficient of my life. I’ve generated many tasks in my head throughout sleepovers when creativity was activated. And I’ve additionally accomplished different tasks, such because the documentary or the e book. Who was going to inform me that I used to be going to put in writing a e book?

P. When you began managing it, you had been a few years away from getting sick.

R. I had forgotten that most cancers was within the textual content! When Alfredo Sanzol [director del CDN] He offers me the go-ahead, I meet him once more and I say to myself: “Holy shit! Here is a decision that I have not made, that has been made in some way.” It normally occurs to me: many instances I understand that I’ve chosen this or that function as a result of he tells me about it throughout rehearsals. There I discover the true cause.

P. For instance?

R. 14.4 It’s a few boy who tries to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. It could not have come at a greater time, once I bought sick and needed to cross my very own strait. In the tip, theater at all times manages to resonate in a method or one other.

P. Has your relationship with vulnerability modified?

R. I’ve at all times pretended, and I’ve ended up believing it, that I used to be sturdy, omnipotent, the chief, the one who pulls come on. Vulnerability was, for me, a damaging factor. I lived a tough childhood due to my relationship with my father, who was particularly reasonable and really progress, however the character might do it. He punished us: there I realized that solely the sturdy survive. That is why I’ve by no means endured bodily violence and I don’t increase my youngsters that method.

P. And now…

R. In my lack I’ve found myself greater than what I felt once I was pushing within the scrum (I used to be captain of the youth rugby crew: I used to be not a superb participant, however I used to be an animal, because of my inherited genetic structure) or once I bought on the horse and shouted “Let’s get them!” It confirmed a personality very opposite to how I actually felt. Adolescence is the interval by which we cover essentially the most from who we actually are.

P. It was a part of the character.

R. And I introjected it as an actor and people had been the roles they gave me. Always captains: Captain Trueno, Captain Ugarte, the Great Captain, César Borgia, who was captain of the papal armies… Notice that I’ve come out of the tunnel of sickness and I’ve accomplished two tasks, two comedies, by which I’m an antihero.

P. You have come to phrases with vulnerability when plainly on the planet…

R. …it is modern to be sturdy and evil, sure. I see it as a magical strategy to compensate.

P. How do you get alongside now with time?

R. It has modified. there was an excessive amount of fear and now I I occupy More, I attempt to seize the second. The future doesn’t exist and neither does the previous. We reside fishing from the previous after we turn into melancholic. Or residing with an expectation that’s by no means met. What I’ve realized as a director is that the setbacks you encounter find yourself making the thought you had higher. And I attempt to put myself in non-routine conditions, as a result of routine is what hastens life.

P. Death?

R. Already at 12 years outdated I had a disaster. We youngsters of atheists and agnostics surprise lots, we do not take into consideration going to heaven. But the one who’s afraid of dying is the ego, one’s neuropathy, the character with which we’ve turn into accustomed to surviving. When, in sickness, you join with what is important, worry subsides somewhat. We ought to be taught to die, and it’s the solely factor we’re not taught. We at all times cover that within the closet.

P. Would you prefer to be in one other department of the multiverse?

R. Wow, I’m delighted!