'Ensayo sobre la Ceguera' premiere in Teatre Tantarantana's Àtic 22.
- Iggy Planas
- Jul 6, 2018
- 4 min read
Last Thursday the 5th, La Coquera Teatro premiered its most recent production, 'Ensayo sobre la Ceguera' (Blindness), an adaptation of the homonymous novel by José Saramago in an immersive theatre format where the audience surrounds the action itself and also participates in the plot in certain occasions, a play who left no one unmoved. The premiere took place at 20h in Teatre Tantarantana's Àtic 22.
Teaser 'Ensayo sobre la Ceguera'
Copyright: Carmen Ibáñez
What is this play about?
An incomprehensible blindness plage blights the city, and the first patients are promptly isolated in an abandoned installation while the pertinent measures are taken in order to understand the disease and bring some response. Contention is needed, civilization must prevail at all means. But, what happens with all those first patients? Who will help a blinded person if the condition itself was contagious? Is it all permitted to protect the rest of humanity, even abandoning to their own fate? Live first hand the pandemic, feel the horror of seeing how human beings lose, minute after minute, all kinds of decency, of empathy. Such an opportunity to take part on the acclaimed novel by José Saramago in an immersive theatre approach by La Coquera.
Poster of the play
Thanks to all the assisting ones, almost 40 people who came and supported us, either being close friends, people who gave their grain of sand to the production or the winners of the two giveaways of double-tickets to attend the premiere organized by UPC and Vino Afortunado. The fact of seeing and performing this play with a full capacity no longer seen or thought was not only such a thrilling sensation; but also, and at the same time, such a challenge controlling all those people in order to make them pay attention and concentrate in the plot and what happened around them.
Congratulations to the rest of my partners for match up the circumstances and being able to control the overbooked capacity of this premiere. A special mention deserves Lluís Arruga in his first performance with us, having joined the cast only with some previous rehearsals. In general terms, it could be said that this play has some path behind and besides the inconveniences we find on the way, we know how to adapt ourselves, improvise in some moments, and carry on with this play. Let's keep it like that, fellas, let's make this one just the beginning of a great season!
I also want to acknowledge to Alberto Rizzo, the director, for his advises and previous recommendations before the play, and for controlling that everything went as good as it could for a premiere. To Victoria Crespo, actress and cast member, for her previous warm-up exercises before acting. To Nacho Martí for helping us in the lighting and sound technical aspects, without it, a great part of the magic we got in the scene will be lost. Finally, I want to thank Àtic 22 staff members for offering their space, trust on us and for giving us this chance.
At the end of the show, Vino Afortunado (one of the show's sponsor) organized a small toast where both actors/crew and the audience participated. In that toast, Alberto Rizzo (play's director) said some words of thanks, and he talked about the idiosyncrasies of the project itself, about how it started and what it had become, though there is still a long path for this project and yesterday's premiere was only the iceberg's tip for the future in 'Ensayo sobre la Ceguera'.
In addition, during the toast we shared some opinions and critiques with some of the assistants, most of them were positive, the audience was still shocked by what they had seen and many of them weren't able to define concretely how they felt about it, but they said they had enjoyed the play, and they would recommend it to their acquaintances. I especially remember that, when exchanging reviews, a woman who's a teacher in Madrid confessed that during the performance and during its ending, some emotive tears had run over her cheeks since she had enjoyed the play so much that some sensations she didn't feel for a long time had been awakened. When saying goodbye to her, I was able to see some tears coming to her eyes, a symptom that she was still shocked and what she had seen was still latent. I hope she will recommend us in her city in order to make a tour with this play that leaves no one unmoved.
'Ensayo sobre la Ceguera' (Blindness) will continue in Teatre Tabtarantana's Àtic 22 up to the 15th of July. We will perform from Thursday to Saturday at 20h and on Sundays at 18.30h. Rickets cost 13€ in Tantarantana's box office, 12€ booking them through their website and 10€ via Atrápalo. Each show is limited to a maximum of 40 people, so it's convenient to book your tickets in advance to ensure them. If you want more information and knowing about the news, you can follow La Coquera Teatro in its social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get noticed from the latest news.
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