2023-06-29 18:16:34
This Sunday July 2starting at 10 p.m., will be performed Infanticide? in the Gastronomic Restaurant and Hotel The Molí de l’Escala. It is an adaptation of the work written 125 years ago by Victor Catalanpseudonym of Caterina Albert. Directed by the director and screenwriter Rosa Vergeswinner of a Goya Award, will be played by the Escalan actress Carmen Callol and will feature live music from Quim Ollé. This co-production of the Ajuntament de l’Escala and the Molí de l’Escala, with the collaboration of the Albert family, has the particularity that it will be staged in a natural setting such as the same mill that inspired the writer more than a century ago. It maintains the essence of the original manuscript, preserved in the Historical Archive of l’Escala and aims to raise the validity of its central theme (the condition of women, rebellious and submissive, in a patriarchal and intolerant society) at the same time that it questions to what extent and in what way is this still present in today’s society. the ticketswhich went on sale in mid-June, already they have exhausted.
‘La infanticida’, written by Víctor Català (Caterina Albert) in 1898 is an interior monologue in verse whose protagonist is Nela, locked up for life in an asylum after committing infanticide. The author plays with the resource of ‘flash-back’ to explain the reasons that led the protagonist, who lives in a mill with her father and brother, to throw her son into the millstone to kill him. The dreams and illusions of escaping the oppressive patriarchal atmosphere, once she falls in love with Reiner, disappear and turn into fear and anguish once she becomes pregnant and the man abandons her in his luck
Now, 125 years since Caterina Albert wrote it, the monologue returns to the scene that inspired the author: the Escala mill, which chef Jordi Jacas has converted into a gastronomic restaurant and hotel. The adaptation that will be performed there, entitled ‘Infanticida?’, is signed by the director and screenwriter Rosa Vergés, the actress Carme Callol and the municipal archivist and director of Espais Víctor Català, Lurdes Boix.
To make this version of the monologue, the three have collected information by consulting the original manuscript in the Historical Archive of l’Escala, as well as different published research works and a selection of texts by the writer herself. “We documented a lot looking for the essence of this text. We tried to be faithful to its spirit, always with enormous respect and without any desire to invent anything. We focused on the strength of the monologue and the points timeless and that do not expire. This version takes its original soul but wants to go further,” explains Vergés.
The director specifies why the play writes its title, unlike the original, with a question mark at the end. “We didn’t do it by chance, but what we’re trying to do is ask ourselves a series of things. We keep the narrative of the past, while at the same time allowing for a contemporary reading. Infanticide portrayed in a harsh way the darker side of the condition human and what we want is to question society if the issue it deals with, which is very delicate, is still valid. How many people do not abandon a newborn out of fear?”, he asks.
“A personal challenge”
Escalan actress Carme Callol is in charge of stepping into Nela’s shoes. During the performance, she will establish a monologue from which she will create a dialogue between the author herself and her character. “Bringing this text to the Molí de l’Escala stage touches me very particularly, it makes me very happy and I consider it a very exciting personal challenge. When I was little I used to go to see Caterina Albert at her house with my grandmother and I listened to him talk about the day-to-day life of the town. Being able to return this visit now with his words is a privilege,” he says.
The musician Quim Oller, with his flute, will help evoke memories and feelings of the protagonist during the performance. ‘Infanticide?’ it can be seen in a single function on Sunday, July 2 at ten o’clock at night.
The chef and director of Molí de l’Escala, Jordi Jacas, is “very happy” with a project that will see the light of day thanks to several factors, such as “the involvement of the City Council, the commitment of Rosa Vergés and Carme Callol and the fact that it coincides with the 125th anniversary of Víctor Català’s work”. “We had always heard the story of the miller remembering how Caterina Albert had come more than once to the mill to document herself before writing her story and now, more than a century later, we will be able to experience it first hand”, underline
The mayor of l’Escala, Josep Bofill, has remarked that “Víctor Català is one of the most important figures that l’Escala has given and in recent years we have done numerous actions to highlight it, as is being the configuration of the Víctor Català Spaces in Alfolí de la Sal, the Clos del Pastor and the hermitage of Santa Reparada; the creation with the University of Girona of the Víctor Català Chair for Studies on Modernism or promoting numerous activities around his figure, as is that of this production around the work ‘La Infanticida'”. He also recalled the significance of the acquisition of the Clos del Pastor building and that the writer’s nephew, Lluís Albert, transferred to the Ajuntament de l’Escala the personal legacy of Víctor Català, which includes pieces keys to Catalan literature such as the original text of the novel ‘Solitud’.
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