“Franco is of no interest to me at all. That guy doesn't deserve theater." This is stated by its director, Ximun Fuchs, when asked for the first time it comes to light. Why then, a letter to Franco's grandson?

The Jewish philosopher Gunther Anders wrote a letter to the son of Adolf Eichmann, condemned to death for being responsible for the Nazi massacre, inviting him to join the fight against Nazism. Fuchs has relatives of the German concentration camps and those of Franco, and inevitably uses comparison: “Franco, on the other hand, has never been tried, there has been no case of Franco, so we cannot write that letter.”

Theater can also be a kind of question: trauma and a way to pose the problem. However, to address the issue they have not done a theatre play situated in the past: “We have looked at the present and ours, at what we have conquered from our relatives, also taking into account the past and the future.” Franco and everything that has happened since then have wanted to put words and faces behind us, from the peripetees of a hospital today. “The hospital can be a metaphor for our people: it is born, it dies, it is loved, it is lived, it is worked, many diseases are treated… In most social areas we do not mix people from all generations; in a hospital yes,” says the director.

As dynamic as memory

In total, there are seven actors involved in the work: Pako revolts, Erika Olaizola, Patricia Urrutia, Manex Fuchs, Zoila Berastegi, Urko Redondo and Ander Lipus. But each of them gets into the skin of more than one character. This is a very dynamic theater play, with rapid stage changes and clothes from one floor to another from the hospital. This is explained by the director: “In theatre, memory is very present, but not historical memory, but popular memory, which is transmitted in homes. This memory is full of contradictions and confusions, it is plural, and my desire has been to bring that dynamic and plastic memory to the stage through a plastic work”.

Two years ago the first ideas were ignited in Fuchs, and so far the actors have had a great deal to say. This has been possible thanks to the way it works: a stay, an improvisation and some momentary sensations. The Azpeitiarra actress Erika Olaizola is involved for the first time in a work of these dimensions and characteristics, and says that being part of this group has been a gift: “For me, this way of working is new, but it’s being very nice. We have gradually shaped the work. We've worked a lot of people from their position, and it's nice to see that when you put it together, it makes sense."

Live theater play

If the actors have been an active part of the creative process, the same can be said of the role of the writers in charge of the text. IGOR Elortza and Unai Iturriaga were in charge of writing the first starting point, and since then, they have been in different essays to talk to the actors and the director and make arrangements. They feed each other. In the words of Fuchs: “Theater is written, but we don’t think it can be written off stage. It's like making tomatoes out of the ground. That’s why the writers come to the essays, propose changes, bring the proposal back, we try…”.

There will still be time for further changes, when the public’s reaction is known: “Until we start with the public, we don’t usually understand what we say. You can't know this without an audience. That’s why the work is in continuous movement, it’s a living material.”

Result of the accumulation of forces

The Basque playwright rarely has the opportunity to enjoy the original play of this tour and its size. Theatre groups Artedrama, Le Petit Théâtre de Pain and Dejabu Panpin Laborstrategy meet every three years, and this sum of forces enables them to work in this way. After the success of the Cinderella and Hamlet, especially the second, it is already three who have named the letter to Franco’s grandson.

After long stays, the final result has been a value of coexistence and teamwork. To refine the latest formations, Luhuso hosts a three-week residence in which the public will be shown for the first time what has been worked so far. It will be 31 October. They will then offer over forty performances throughout the Basque Country. At least until 5 May.