The theater opens to local talent in Aste Nagusia
Four Biscayans coincide this year in theaters in the center of Bilbao productions, a showcase that is difficult to reach
It is not so common for works by local creators to find their place in the Aste Nagusia program at Bilbao theatres. In alternative venues, on txosna stages and even in hotels, their presence has been a constant at parties, but it has been more difficult for them to enter spaces such as the Euskalduna Palace and the Champs Elysées; facing the rental of a room and going to the box office is a great risk for a small local company. And so, usually, the tendency has been to program productions of well-known companies from abroad. However, this year, with the full recovery of the festival schedule, four local productions coincide in the billboard in the center of the city.
Gurutze Beitia | premiere
“I have to take care with functions morning and afternoon”
Gurutze Beitia, with Mitxel Santamarina and Iñaki Maruri, with whom he will perform in the mornings on the tourist bus. /
‘Lies, boleros and home videos’ was about to be released in March 2020, it was missing very little… and confinement arrived. The staging has not had its chance until now: it will be from August 20 to September 4 at the Euskalduna Palace and it will be, Gurutze Beitia assures, “the comedy of the summer”. This “entanglement with three quite lying characters, some more than others, goes from drama to laughter right away.”
She is Begoña, “the one with the smallest lies” and one of the three vertices of a love triangle in which Julio (Chema Trujillo) and Cristina (Karmele Larrinaga) also participate. «I am a party animal but I am not going to be able to enjoy myself as a spectator because, between the performance of this work in the afternoon and the three performances tomorrow on the tourist bus, I have to take care of myself. But it is a luxury and a pride to be able to have fun while having fun », she consoles herself.
For Beitia, acting in Aste Nagusia is not a rarity, she has done it in many, but she knows that it is more difficult for others. «And Basque theater should be present on festive billboards not only in Bilbao, but throughout Euskadi. We are from here and we want to do theater for our people at the times when they have the most fun”, says the actress.
Lander Otaola | Back with Pichichi
“We go to the box office and I would pay the rent, it would be unaffordable”
‘Yo soy Pichichi’ took five years to reach the scene. At first no one was interested in producing it and then the performers themselves chose to do it with Pavilion 6. It premiered there in 2018, it did 33 functions that were “totally sold out” and now it is moving, in its third season, to the Gran Vía, to the BBK Room (from 21 to 28). «We go to the box office, the BBK gives us 100% and does not charge us rent. If not, we do not access these rooms because the rentals are unaffordable. Less than 200 spectators a day would already be losses for local companies”, explains Lander Otaola, author and protagonist of the work.
Otaola understands that “theaters want to ensure a level of public and that is why they bring works from abroad, but there is a lot of talent here and I think that, if they have several rooms, they should dedicate half to the local so that the public can see what what do we do”. He calls it, in the case of Pichichi, “doing the international tour of Bilbao” and “crossing the pond” to continue with the “success” that he proclaims “with a big mouth because it sounds familiar to everyone and there are people who have I’ve come to see her two or three times.” Why? «It is a musical, very Aste Nagusia, with football as a great incentive, with a figure as beloved as Pichichi. And you leave valuing life more, because his was short, intense and fun.
Bea Insa | Critical vision of the Transition
“It was time for those of us here to make a hole for ourselves”
Bea Insa uses clicks from Famobil to narrate some episodes of the Transition. /
Also in Campos will be ‘Tarán tran transition. Rain, grays and the 5,000 lovers of the king’, from August 19 to 23. «Each function could last three days, with as much material as there is. We have been told many times that the Transition went very well, but there are so many things that have not been resolved… », says Bea Insa.
There are three threads in the work: the Vitoria massacre, the Basauri eleven (who were prosecuted for having an abortion in 1976) and the murder of Yolanda González by the extreme right. “There is humor and there is tragedy. We sharpen everything.” It premiered in March at La Fundición and this will be its first year in a theater in the center at this time, although it has performed in a hotel and in the La Morada theater for a long time. “It was time for us locals to make a hole for ourselves. We have a commitment to the public and Aste Nagusia is a great showcase. We need visibility and the cultural agenda of the festivals is one of the most important spaces of the year », she defends.
Gorka Minguez | the chirene cabaret
“It’s risky, but the public responds”
“A chirene cabaret, an ode to Bilbao or directly a bilbainada and a local ‘stand up comedy'” is, in the words of Gorka Mínguez, ‘De Bilbao ¡¡Ahivalahostia!!’, the production based on the book by Tomás Ondarra in the one where the gang, the txikitero, Marijaia, the crazy woman from Arriquibar, Tonetti, Carola, el Gargantúa, San Blas, Athletic… In the Sala Cúpula del Campos they promise music (with Yeyo Bayeyo) and monologues by these characters between the 24th and the 28th.
«Those from outside find it somewhat curious, but without a doubt it is a work for those from here, who understand everything. Our idea is that it does not leave Bilbao ». That is why being present at parties is so important. It always has been. «I have been in big venues in Aste Nagusia for seven years and I claim it for the artists here: we have to be at the parties. It is risky to go to the box office, but the public responds ». That the billboard is so Bilbao this year is something that “must be supported. There are very interesting proposals that, until recently, we could not see in the great halls of the city. Fortunately, there is now more opening than before, which was only scheduled for companies from Madrid.