Salvador Vallejo |
Mérida (EFE).- The actress and humorist Silvia Abril, star of ‘Las Asambleístas (Those who stumble)’ at the International Classical Theater Festival of Mérida, regrets that, as reflected in the original text of Aristophanes, women continue to be “subjected to ” to a patriarchy before which he defends comedy as a balm, because “either you laugh at all this to survive, or there is no escape”.
At 52, the Catalan confesses that she feels like a “girl” by continuing to be very active in her work, which she understands not as an obligation but as one of the “pleasures” that “make her the happiest”, which is why she will continue to act while the body allows it, he assures in an interview with Efe.
For Abril, her profession is “playing to live the lives of other women”, which “makes it easier” for her to continue drawing energy to manage an intense professional life that in 2023 has led her to shoot the Netflix series ‘All the Times That we fell in love’ and television programs such as ‘Your face sounds to me’, among other projects.
Silvia Abril plays Práxagora in ‘Las Assemblyistas’
Now, the actress returns to the Mérida Festival to play Práxagora in ‘Las Asambleístas’, a play directed by José Troncoso that, according to Abril herself, will continue and add new performances to those already programmed, since the women who make up this assembly “we felt very comfortable and we want to tour”.
As for her return twenty years after her first performance at the Roman Theatre, “you have to be like stones to not get emotional”, jokes the humorist who considers this enclave the “cradle, womb and mother” of ancient performances.
“A dream come true” of which he is “very aware”, which is why, when talking about it, his beauty “bristles”, he says.
Together with ‘Praxágora’, ‘Geometrica’, ‘Serviciala’, ‘Lanzada’, ‘Némesis’ and ‘Lacia’ they will hold an assembly in the historic Meritense setting in which they will involve the public who, surely, will vote in favor of the assembly members , affirms April between laughs.
April identifies with her character, leader of the assembly
“Praxágora talks a lot about me,” explains the actress, who considers herself a woman with vitality, energy and natural leadership, like her character, leader of a journey to “get to the assembly where men rule and try in a camouflaged way change the laws.”
“Drag” five women whose experiences “also speak of me, fills me with emotion and strength,” declares Abril, grateful for the opportunity to play Praxagora, “a gift of character” that “now lives in me.”
“Unfortunately”, laments the actress, the text of Aristophanes, a comedy written 2,400 years ago “to vindicate the place of women a bit”, has a validity “that it should not”, since two millennia later the situation is ” practically in the same place”, criticizes.
A situation that the cast of ‘Las Assemblyistas’ will denounce as best they know how, provoking laughter because, as the comedian points out rescuing a phrase from her husband, comedian Andreu Buenafuente, “laughing is the only way out” on many occasions.
Thus, “Those who stumble”, led by Abril, will try to bring “light to this claim that has persisted for too long” using comedy as “Vaseline to sneak into important issues” and, above all, “survive”.