Diana Navarro is in Malaga to present her work ‘In a strange land’. This time, her interpretation of the great Shell Piquer It will hit the stage at the Teatro del Soho Caixabank in your city.
How does it feel to be in Malaga?
I am very happy to be here because coming to Malaga is always a joy, as a person and as an artist. Because everything goes together when it comes to Malaga, every time I come here it is a victory in itself.
And do you miss her?
Very much. Also, the more I come, the more I realize that I need her and that I want to be here. It is a city that never tires.
“Coming to Malaga is always a joy, as a person and as an artist. It is a city that never tires”
And coming to the Teatro del Soho to represent ‘In a strange land, what does it mean to you?
It is a pride. This theater means a lot for the people of Malaga and for the culture. That a person like Antonio Banderas has wanted to invest his entire career, all his success has brought him here and has put Malaga culturally on the world map.
How would you define this play in your own words?
‘In a strange land’ is a work that, between copla, poetry, fictitious and real data, tells a story of three impressive human beings, not only for their artistic quality, but also for their human quality. And being so ideologically different, people prevail because they put common sense and the human being first.
Would you like to have witnessed that fictional encounter?
I would have loved it. Every night I live it as if it had been real. And every night we modify reality and history so that people believe that this happened. Many people walk away wondering if it really happened or not. And this is very exciting.
Who would you say Concha Piquer was in her time?
Concha Piquer was one of the first feminist defenders, precursors and creators of what we know as the Spanish song or copla. The authors of that generation were impeccable.
Do you think then that this work is necessary to vindicate the figure of Piquer?
This work is very necessary to vindicate the figure of the three. We show a more human part. It is a necessary work for what it tells and how it tells it.
Is it true that you have a personal bond with Piquer?
It is that Doña Concha persecutes me. This is something mystical because 17 years ago when I came out with ‘Sola’, the song that made me known, her daughter Concha Márquez Piquer called me to congratulate me and sang it to me over the phone. So for me it was as if Doña Concha was singing it to me because they were very similar. I invoke them every night, before going out when it’s dark, I close my eyes and see the faces of the two. It gives me a lot of energy and a lot of ‘Concha powers’.
“I look at the girl from Huelin and I see that it has been a very difficult road, but I am here, moreover, at my best”
How was your first time in the theater?
Very exciting and nothing traumatic. In addition, Avelino Piedad, who plays Rafael de León, and Alejandro Vera, who plays Lorca, are the best partners you can have, apart from being immense actors. They are extraordinary.
To what extent are theater and copla related?
Very much. Let’s say that the copla is one more point of flamenco, in the sense that flamenco is felt and is transmitted from the feeling, but the copla, in addition to the feeling, is the transmission from the interpretation
Is there a common reaction in the public?
In the end, everyone ends up excited and with the same reflection, agreeing in this text that Juan Carlos Rubio puts to us: “that we have to put people before ideology.”
To finish, what would you say to Diana Navarro who was starting in 2005?
(He gets excited). I would hug her, poor thing. She did what I could. When you are a neighborhood girl you think that things are very easy and this world is very crazy. She would have told her to study and train more.
Do you think he was aware of everything that was to come?
Absolutely. But I do think that blessed unconsciousness has made me get here. Because now I look at the girl from Huelin and I see that it has been a difficult road, but I am here and, moreover, at my best.