'Friendship': an ingenious but too light comedy by Juan Mayorga

2023-01-28T10:39:57.371Z

The staging of 'Amistad' directed by José Luis García-Pérez turns in search of laughter with forced 'gags' that slow down the show

Let's start with a phrase from Juan Mayorga: "The situation is theatrical."

The playwright delivered it in 2019 during his admission speech at the Royal Spanish Academy to underline the "theatricality" of that ceremony, in reference to its obvious staging, but also reveals one of the keys to his writing: in his works there are almost always a metatheatrical game and the essence of many of them is found precisely at the crossroads between life and theater.

Amistad,

premiered on Thursday at the Naves del Español in the Matadero in Madrid, is a perfect example of this.

In the first place, because of the "situation" that develops: three lifelong friends chatting at a wake.

What could be more “theatrical” than three lifelong friends interspersing memories with

tics?

and common places to which people usually resort to endure the tedium of wakes?

And secondly, because that "situation"

is actually a “theatrical game”

that these three men practice without skipping any of their protocols, since it is precisely the theatrical conventions —in this case, those of comedy— that here expose the conventions of life.

Explained in this way, the work seems twisted because not much more of its plot can be revealed so as not to gut its main grace, but the staging is not complicated at all.

Rather the opposite, perhaps too light.

A light comedy.

Well, there is no more ambition in the text than the theatrical game.

It's ingenious in that regard, especially because of how Mayorga takes advantage of the resource of repetition both in the dialogues and in the structure.

Also for the great touch of black humor that runs through the writing.

But it is supposed that precisely this game, in the uncomfortable and embarrassing context of the wake, should make the truth explode, force the protagonists to tell each other everything that they have not said to each other over the years, the envy, the jealousy, the rancor for stolen girlfriends, the affection forged from childhood... All that is,

but expressed in a superficial and stereotyped way.

So that the immersion in the theme of friendship that the title promises remains in a simple dip.

A strange chat between friends caused by a strange situation.

On this occasion, the crossover between theater and life does not take place.

The first prevails.

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It also prevails in the production premiered in Madrid.

Played by three more than solvent actors, Daniel Albaladejo, Ginés García Millán and José Luis García-Pérez, under the direction of the latter, the show remains, however, on the surface.

Overturned in the pure staging of the strange dialogues and the strange situation, but not in what lies underneath or in the construction of the characters.

As if the director hadn't found the right tone or atmosphere.

Or maybe because he bets everything on the search for laughter: underlining the funny moments of the text with

gags

unnecessary ones that slow down the function and creating others with actions that are forced.

If Mayorga makes a comedy, you have to squeeze it thoroughly.

But if it is overcharged, it can cause a rebound effect.

Like canned laughter.