L'aperitiu

The incurable game bug was beginning to caress us from our entrails. Then a providential text fell into our hands and I would like to recommend it to anyone who wants to follow the sacred path of the actor. It is the work of Heinrich Von Kleist on the movement of puppets.

With this work and the support of Kleist’s essay already cited, we began to discover the relationship of the actor with the essence of his action verbs: “I walk to a table”, the character with his costume and make-up, and the prosthesis of fixed eyes that gaze into infinity catapulting the actor towards the archetype, towards a state of mask as well. We already realized that going to the table in front of which we were going to sit was an action in itself with its multiple chromaticisms of subtle changes as we approached the destination of that journey – the everyday life that transports us to the myth, to the objective.

Arriving at the vicinity of the table and going around the chair on the left, we stood between the table and the chair, a place of transition and from which we were going to take position on the mental throne of the one who occupies by right of consumer – participant – in a contemporary and at the same time deeply Mediterranean social rite, the rite of the aperitif.

The two bodies moved by the intangible puppeteer bent at the knees to become masters of that table, that is to say, customers, in a last subtle abandonment. A little swaying tuned the emanation of that transformation. A new language was born. There was born the basis of the theater of the Sacred Actor.

There was born the basis of the theater of the Sacred Actor. This work that I had created fleeing from the stage, we wanted to show it to the public, since following a fundamental guideline, we were in a state of presentation, knowing that our personal and subjective experience was totally surrendering to the archetype, since we were disappearing as a subject and inhabiting a new existence. And we were melting into it maitrisant the language to offer it to the experience of the spectator.

This is what I would understand as “telluric theater”. That is to say, the entity of the earth infinitely inhabiting its own present delivered millimeter by millimeter to the infinitely changing present. The force in its presence of a tree, a rock, an animal or any of the manifestations of existence. When the human being feels the belonging also and from the same state to all of them (the manifestations of being). This is for me the body (later we will speak of the voice) of this theater.

This is for me the body (later we will speak of the voice) of this theater. He has already acquired as supreme master of himself, the supreme detachment. Without this surrender, it is impossible. Better, to let it go and simply dedicate oneself to represent, in the theater or in life, which for that matter have much in common, I mean the life that one lives incessantly going through the capricious corridors of the labyrinth of human relationships. I am not saying that this is not interesting, but I am telling you that it is something else.

Very well, we already had some characters, some scenic references and a story to tell. But we did not want it to be within the canons of representation of a theatrical work If we presented L’APERITIU on stage, no one would understand it or make it their own. To be coherent, the chosen place had to be as new as the communication proposal. What did those human dolls moved by hypothetical, well-dressed strings look like? If we left them in static movement, it would be enough to set up the table and chairs in the window of a clothing store.

In December of that year, we installed ourselves in the window of a clothing store in Vic’s Main Square. The daily rite of L’APERITIU lasted about 50 minutes in our presentation. In the window, the rhythm of the actions did not have to conform to the expectations of a spectator in the stalls. How nice! How nice! After having left the theater, I could feel free and play without reading corsets.

A very singular element of this work was the play of electromagnetic emanations of the brain through presence. That is, the actor, the one who acts, captures the energetic code of a mannequin and reproduces it emanating from his whole body The result combined with the swaying of the limbs after having performed a gesture was truly amazing. We had achieved a real effect of stage magic. The mannequins took on body and soul offered by the officiant, actor or actress, theater of archetypes in this case, the iconic “images” to which aspired the passers-by who would like to transform themselves into them and dress up in their clothes.

I remember with special affection a presentation of L’APERITIU that we did at the suggestion of the poet Joan Brossa at the foot of Barcelona’s lighthouse. The public arrived by swallow, disembarked, contemplated the ritual officiated by those cosmic dolls and returned again in the swallow to follow a fabulous itinerary of which we were part. It was called “La nit d’en Brossa”.

DOCUMENT. LA CLAU DEL TEATRE

No puc pas explicar les figures. Estalviem llumins,abans que no s’espatlli la xemeneia.Una muntanya no és una barraca.L’any passat Alber Vidal va decidir de dormir sense matalàs;aquest any ha decidit de dormir a cel obert. Un barri esdevé un port. El seu puntimirat espectacle, d’una valentia i d’una rigor insòlites a casa nostra, pinta focs que recorden els vells cultes i ensorra els fogons per on han desfilat tantes famílies de comediants. No hi veureu cap baldaquí, només un clot recorda el geni de la terra, i el moviment té un niu d’ous, on no arriba la serp.

Ni llençant sal a la pols ni amb el seient encarat a la paret no sentireu mai l’anunci de les visites. L’APERITIU posa l’escombra dreta i dóna interpretacions diverses a les parets on arriba el mar;enfonsa els fums dels còmics i , espectacle mercurial, acara puntes de ganivet.Des dels vells clots del teatre, xemeneia amunt, predomina la convicció que, si plantem un llorer, s’ha de morir abans d’un any, perquè els ferros no són cames.

Aquest espectacle, primfilat, únic en la nostra dramatúrgia, on abunda la pedanteria, el mimetisme i el desconeixement de les pròpies possibilitats, un encara a punta de sol l’acabament de l’obra i pren la mida de l’ombra de l’espectador.Perquè, aquí, l’or no fa d’amulet. De vegades els personatges pinten dos ulls al capdamunt dels arbres i, maniquins, porten al límit la força expressiva de la immobilitat; altres vegades aguanten una pedra amb la punta del peu mentre el pianista els passa la farina enlaire.

A L’APERITIU, Albert Vidal fa que una ombra digui a l’altra: Alto! La retòrica és la puta de l’art.

JOAN BROSSA

---

CRÍTIQUES

A marvellous presentation in the “Casino Théàtre”. The Albert Vidal company gives a fascinating demonstration which takes one’s breath away and even stops one from coughing… Where nothing is uttered… everything is said, wonderfully.

LA SUISSE, Genève. Georgee Gros

Un espectacle realment insòlit. L’Aperitiu és un d’aqeulls rars espectacles que situen el teatre a l’altura del nostre temps.

MUNDO DIARIO, Barcelona. Josep Maria Loperena

Prou valia la pena de desafiar el fred per arribar ja de nit, a bord d’una barca, al final de l’escullera, on ens esperaven els quatre intèrprets de L`Aperitiu. Feia poc més de mitja hora que hi eren, inmòbils i concentrats. Albert Vidal i la seva companyia van deixar bocabadats tots els presents amb la perfecció i la professionalitat del seu treball.

LA VANGUARDIA; Barcelona. Lluís Permanyer

A superb work on gesture is manifestation of the being. A presentation at once disquieting and fascinating.

JOURNAL DE GENÈVE. Marie Danielle Brunet

Hypertheatral, the language of Vidal uses nothing bit the actor and the intensity of his gesture. The members of his group work admirably. The presence of the pianist and composer Carles Santos manages to transpose the usual into the unusual at the same time giving everything its coherence and density.

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE. Jean Jacques Roth