2024-08-20 21:13:29
In times of proliferation of denialist speeches and questioning of discussions that as a society we already believed to be settled, the playwright, director and actress Paula Brown presents an intimate and sensitive work that invites the exercise of creating and keeping memory alive. It is about Memory of a poeta piece that he wrote and directed, and which features the performances of Emiliano Díaz, José Manuel Espeche and Rosina Fraschina.
How do memories survive the passage of time? What decides what is erased and what remains? In this work, Marrón explores the fragility and power that memory can have, while His characters seek to reconstruct the story of Elvira, the librarian friend of a poet from Avellaneda, who disappeared in 1978.With the help of Tito (Díaz) and Rita (Fraschina), Eduardo (Espeche), the poet, challenges oblivion in an act of resistance: he takes over the public library in his neighborhood and, from there, he writes, relives, remembers.
Memory of a poet It also allows us to think about how memories are built, which often become diffuse and difficult to “grasp.” “We are what we forget and what we want to remember at the same time. As an author, and without having lived through the military dictatorship, this work is my way of creating memories for future generations and for the present,” says Marrón. She also highlights that beyond the arbitrary nature of memories, they are always a construction with another: “one can think of them individually and also as a society,” she reflects.
-Why did you choose to address the issue of memory and disappearances during the last military dictatorship?
-The theme of memory surprised even me. I didn’t have a trigger, but it arose from an image I had of a poet sleeping in a popular library in the suburbs. I thought it was interesting to try to get into what popular libraries in the neighborhoods represent. And from there, the story of Eduardo’s character and his desire to remember his friend began to take shape.
-What role does memory play in the work?
-On the one hand, there is something concrete that has to do with collective memory in relation to history, but on the other hand, the work invites us to think about what memories we generate, what we want and what we are passionate about. If we really do what we want to do, how memories are built in our own lives. We live in a very mechanical world, where some of the power to think, to be aware of what we do and what we don’t, has been lost. There is a lack of reflection in this very individualistic world. And sometimes the value lies in the little things: in reading or writing. Everyone can find their passion, and I think that the work addresses that as well.
-The text touches on issues such as human rights and public libraries, which are currently under attack by the government. Did you think about them in this context?
-The text was completely reinterpreted. When I finished writing it, I felt that it was another work about memory because I believed that as a society we were all in agreement on some points, but the facts showed me that we were not, that we must continue to insist and resist. Today, public libraries, for example, lack a budget. If the theatre can focus on that and express itself, I think it is necessary. This should not be lost, it is valuable and must continue to be present, especially in the face of a government that does not believe in the State and that cuts back on human rights.
-Do you see theatre as a place of resistance today?
-I think that The theatre, besides being a space of resistance, is a space where one pours out one’s passion, one’s desire, the life drive of doing.and where some questions can be expressed. If I were not producing at this moment, I don’t know what would happen. There is such a sad context that in the theatre one always finds a place where there is hope, where one can fight for it and continue fighting.
*Memories of a poet It can be seen on Sundays at 6 pm at the Teatro del Pueblo, Lavalle 3636.