One of the most anticipated premieres has arrived. Francesco Calil and Natalia Hernández, two of the most exciting actors of the moment, co-star in Pablo Lemón’s new film. The work meets expectations. There are great performances and undeniable talent in the script. There are very successful scenes, memorable moments…but behind that solvency… enthusiasm It reveals fatigue and the danger of falling into your own self-created formulas.
The play premiered at the Teatro Maria Guerrero, the main space of the National Theater Center. After their stay in Madrid, they will embark on a long tour that will run until December 28th, although the dates have not yet been determined, and several venues have already been closed. For example, it will be held in Zamora in January and Seville in May. I like the Lemon Theater and am selling tickets. And that’s something to celebrate, something the author has hard-earned in montages like his latest work. Vania x Vania or before that The Fakers, barbados Either Doña Rosita, attention.
How you feel when you go to see enthusiasm It’s ambiguous to say the least. The first is a strange dystopia. I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve watched a movie set in this era. Alone in the morning Written by Jose Luis Garci. Francesco Calil is similar to Jose Sacristan in 1977, but transferred in 2025. And Natalia Hernandez, in her own way, looks more powerful, less nerdy, and like Fiorella Faltoyano herself.
The use of temporary props and symbols changes. We go from 70s furniture to IKEA sterility, from Guernica paintings to David Bowie paintings, from Ray Peterson (Raimundo Perez if he had been born in Empire), and from very heavy themes. Please tell Laura I love you. To the tune of Suicide, the New York pre-punk that Generation X continues to listen to in a somewhat elitist way. However, the essence of both is not so different. enthusiasm, Like the film itself, it is a portrait of a generation of the malleable bourgeoisie and its incarnations. Both deal with the issue of the “disillusioned elderly” that Mr. Sacristan spoke about on the microphone of Radio Española.
Lemon takes this opportunity to immerse himself in comedy. On other occasions, the writer also intervened in other genres, such as dramatic comedy, black comedy, or more formalist plays focused on language. On almost all of these occasions, Lemmon manipulated each genre with combinations of background and format that were able to create cracks through which we could glimpse the invisible skeletons within which reality and human nature were maintained. But this time, unfortunately, that won’t happen.
In the film, we witness the life of Toni (Caryl) and Olivia (Hernandez), a couple in their late fifties. Everything is depicted in an ironic tone. They live in shitty sterile areas, they have lovers to feel things again that they no longer feel, they curse their jobs and the slavery of parenthood.
These are characters who know they don’t know how to deal with their desires. Middle-aged Spaniards who, out of comfort and fear, have adapted and given up on what excites them and gives meaning to their lives. Because of this, the irony turns sour in many moments of the work. Probably the best. Like Natalia Hernández’s final monologue, or like the lost expression of Francesco Calil, who, despondent and devastated, begins to become a living portrait of his father.
But as we said, the problem with this work lies in its formal aspects. Instead of a scalpel to reveal hidden realities, as on other occasions, here formality becomes a game of fireworks and intellectual skill. These are games that I have already used many times.
The first game used was a Chinese box, the so-called Russian Doll, which allowed fiction and reality to intersect and intertwine on stage. At the end of the play, the audience realizes that what they were watching is a novel that the main character is writing. The space, which begins as an apartment with no walls or furniture, also follows this formal game, and at the end of the piece we see the same apartment fully decorated.
Writing creates reality. However, this mechanism becomes spasmodic, reality and fiction intertwine without stopping, and in the end it is unclear what the purpose is. What can be revealed is still a show off, just a demonstration of talent.
The second game was a departure from the scene. Actors play different characters. In the play, the main character is accompanied by two other performers, Raúl Prieto and Marina Salas. They are not only children, psychologists, siblings, lovers, but also Toni and Olivia themselves. With his versatility, Lemmon commits to “missing” each scene. And he also does it in excess. There’s a well-done scene at the end of a couple’s discussion between the characters of Olivia and Toni, split between the four actors, but at other times the game takes precedence over the relevance of resources.
As it turns out, the problem is excess. Excessive “lemon style”, from lemons that seem to like it. And the downside to loving yourself is that you inevitably lose relevance. Over the years, we’ve seen works inspired by the strength of this author’s writing, many of which are subpar copies. Paradoxically speaking, enthusiasm It seems to have been made by Lemon’s own best forger.
Still, this production contains some memorable moments. Caryl falls into over-the-top tricks in certain scenes, as does the play itself, but there are some very substantive moments, such as the scene with her brother. Natalia Hernández prepares herself and once again shows her ability to restrain gestures, versatility and comedic talent.
Lemon has great actors and he takes advantage of them. And the author himself creates some hilarious scenes, such as the unreality of the parents on the playground and more bitter moments in which he uses his extraordinary ability to synthesize the frustration of not being able to understand the parents’ feelings at the time.
The public’s reaction will be reported. His identification with exposed problems, lack of hope, and automata living in an artificial neighborhood is complete. But there’s also a sense in this work of being in the presence of a comedy we already know. Lemmon fails to break through genre and through his current play gives us a play that is very old in mode and form.
Returning to Garci, do you remember the final monologue in which José Sacristan tells his “golden ass” (Maria Casanova) that he should go to London as a correspondent? In his monologue in front of the microphone, Sacristan reveals a generation’s pivotal moment. “Nostalgia, memories of the past, and pity for ourselves will end forever…” The entire speech builds Civic Sacristan through Spain’s political and social context. It was a complex speech, perhaps, but one of immense power.
Today’s moment is different. Today, such a moral conclusion is no longer valid. And we are not in an era of “change”, but rather an era of regression and evolution. That’s why the lack of politics of these lost beings becomes even stranger, what do they want? What do they want after compromising and swallowing a system that dehumanizes and isolates them? After all, does fatherhood make up for it all? Lemon, this is his first work. Sanctum Sanctum What the institutional theater Maria Guerrero has achieved, paradoxically, is to re-establish bourgeois theater in Spain for a new generation of audiences, the current population. A bittersweet paradox.
About The Author
