EÓLIA EMERGING SCENE 2023
EU MANZANARES / CIA MAR VIVIR
Júlia, a girl from Barcelona, spends the last summer in her grandparents' village house, in Burgos. At the same time, a mass grave from the Civil War is being exhumed very close to there. One night he discovers that his grandfather, with senile dementia, hides an old metal box with memories from his childhood in the yard. The contents of the box and the pit contain a common story that Julia is determined to investigate. But the fugitive memory of his grandfather and the taboo will be strong obstacles in his search. "The master and the sea" is a fiction based on the true story of Antoni Benaiges, a Catalan master murdered in July 1936 in the area of La Pedraja, in Burgos.
Whoever forgets history is doomed to repeat it. This is what the memorial at the entrance to the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz warns. In Spain, hundreds of graves have not yet been exhumed. Thousands of painful stories remain silenced, without the possibility of being repaired. The generation that lived through that is about to disappear altogether.
I have known the story of teacher Antoni Benaiges since Sergi Bernal, a colleague from the neighborhood, traveled to La Pedraja (Burgos) to photographically document the exhumation of a Civil War mass grave. It was the year 2010 and, some time later, he made a sweeping photographic exhibition that has traveled around for years, obtaining great recognition. For everything that was shown there and, above all, for a particular story that was discovered there; that of a young Catalan teacher who in 1934 arrived in a rural town in the province of Burgos, bringing them airs of free thought. For years I was thinking about writing a fictional play about it until, finally, in 2020 I decided and the project of "The Master and the Sea" won one of the Carme Montoriol Grants for Dramaturgy . Once the text was finished, I decided to go ahead with its staging. But coincidences are part of life (like when Sergi came across the master's story). And, just last season, the TNC premiered a documentary show of objects, in small format, around Antoni Benaiges. But the coincidences don't end there; just a few months ago he finished shooting a film that will be available, in principle, this autumn.
Determined that my project would not die in a drawer, I gave it to a group of acting students who have welcomed it with all the enthusiasm, love and commitment in the world. And today, I am very happy to contribute another grain of sand to the repair of our (bad) historical memory, with a wonderful team, determined not to let it fall into oblivion, like so much pain and buried silence in the ditches of our country.
I Manzanares
Dramaturgy and direction: I Manzanares
Interpretation: Carla Alegre, Yoel Marfil, Aleida Mañas, Sandra Pece, Albert Valentín, Anna Bernal, Maria Armengol, Lucía Monteoliva
Scenery and costumes: Zaida Crespo and Cia Marvivir
Lighting: Eric Rufo
Advice on the move: Teresa García Valenzuela
Voice advice: Angels Sanchez
Assistant director in practice: Inés Jiménez
Poster photo design: elena rubio
Acknowledgments: Sergi Bernal, Beatriu Jiménez, Teresa García Valenzuela, Àngels Sànchez, Anna Tantull, Elena Rubio, Natxo Parra, Margarida Manzanares, Arnaiz Díez family. And to all our families, for their support and for sustaining us.