Barsanti Theatre
Company on Red Street
Actors: Juanjo Otero, Aritza Rodriguez and Pako Revuelta
Zuzendaria: Pako Revuelta
Non: July 9 at the Hondarribia Plaza de Armas.

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This play was created by the theater company Barsanti with the intention of occupying the street. It can be interpreted that the title refers to street theater, in addition to expressing the consequence of the theme that deals with the play, eviction. In one case or another, necessarily on the street.

It is not suitable for theatres, as has already been mentioned, because it is expressly visible on the street, and that is what you wanted to stress in the post-applause and goodbye talk. With this play they managed to be finalists in the Max Awards for the best street theatre with its Spanish version, as well as a special mention in the 2018 Humor Fair of Leioa. Keeping this unusual genre in the Basque Country, two more works have been created.

Begoña and Marino moved to this house in newly married 40 years ago. They are now obliged to leave the house, because the bank has sent them the eviction order. The police are at the door and everyone resists their own way. Marino has no intention of leaving the house and Begoña wants to occupy the whole interior to leave nothing to the bank.

It seems to me a very current, social, critical and transformative issue, and adaptation to the language of street theater. They use the house and the balcony as a stage, which enriches the work making it more realistic and showy. The height they use gives a lot of play and the elements they use for this, which have perfectly selected the electrical appliances of the kitchen. You see it from any position in the public and that's a very smart decision.

They have therefore adapted perfectly to the street. They have used humor, many elements and spaces, peculiar characters… Conquering a field in which there may be many stimuli is not easy and therefore they have created their own stimuli in the work without leaving room to look outside. Similarly, the relationship with the public is essential and has also been used in its favor treating it as active characters. The spectator is a demonstrator, an activist for Marino and Begoña, who is approaching eviction. They encourage public participation and make it part of the problem and accomplices. The objectives of street theatre and social criticism are brought together again.

The work has ingredients for a good recipe. In any case, I feel like eating raw. When the subject is neither the basis nor the objective, only the excuse and the thread lose taste. At a certain point, she refers to the fact that her son has evicted the debts left, which leads the viewer to laugh. I share the opportunity of humor, but this does not exclude the responsibility of using the subject only as a context and blurring the problem. It diverts the housing problem and dismisses the right of all people to be refugees. In the same way, nostalgia and love acquire great strength and, despite their importance, it keeps us away from the problem as if mutual appreciation exceeded everything. Maybe we have different goals.