Cécica Bernasconi: “Doing theater is an act of rebellion and survival” | shows

In the midst of the social and political crisis, the performing arts seek to take a breather. From Thursday to Sunday the play El mueble is presented, starring and directed by Cécica Bernasconi and David Carrillo. The actress and plastic artist tells us about theater after the pandemic. “The journey has been very hard and not only for the Teatro de Lucía, but for everyone. For art it was terrible. Imagine having your house closed, ”she tells us on the way to her family’s theater room.

—Carrillo said that acting again was more special seeing Lucía Irurita in each performance. She reminded him of the spirit of the theater. Do you agree?

—Yes, that is the spirit of the theater, but unfortunately that spirit is being lost with that generation, you know? They were people who lived for the theater and for the theater, they did everything: they sewed, they helped with the set design, they participated in everything. Today I don’t see it, except in the people who have lived with that generation.

“What are you responding to?”

—Now the young actor arrives and sits down, he’s just going to do his rehearsal and bye! If you have to pull something—I’ve seen it—they don’t even flinch. We (with Sandra, his sister) are already grown up, we are not young, even though one feels 15 (she laughs), and we have another background. That education of doing everything up to now… And exhausting.

—But hasn’t that given your theater an identity?

I hope so (smiles).

—Several directors point that out. Is it difficult to defend?

“Of course, all the time. You get tired of going against everything. Sometimes you say: “Now this love of art no, this is as far as I get.” All part of education in our country. There is not a great interest in culture in general and that comes from the moment you are born. I have invited many people who have never been to the theater, but they don’t come.

“What could be a solution?”

—Put it in the curriculum of all schools in Peru, to the last corner. Why do not you do? By keeping in ignorance. That has always been said, it is true. I don’t want to get into politics. All of us independents are fighting, we stay like this, ‘every man for himself and whatever he can’. It is the Government and private companies that should lift this.

—Being on stage changes their outlook, right?

-Of course. Theater for me is a great therapy. It’s just that I don’t feel the time. So, I can arrive depressed, bad, but I do my job, I forget about the world and I come out renewed and I am another.

—And this is what should happen in the viewer…

Let’s hope it can, right? According to the work (laughs). You have to tell the truth. Sometimes you see double and triple. But the theater is a therapy and doing this particular play, because it is about a couple. She wanted something and he wanted something else, and they have been married for 25 years. We have all had a partner and that has happened to you, it is inevitable.

—You prefer not to talk about politics, but you tweet despite the fact that the sector is often attacked.

—Once they have told me everything, but I pay no attention. It seems that Twitter is for everyone to get their anger out and some are hired. Many things come together for Peruvians, the pandemic and bad governments. We are going backwards. The Peruvian is no longer very friendly, but you have to understand. We got out of terrorism, poverty, corrupt governments… Yes, well, we are tired.