En la mesura de l'impossible
By Tiago Rodrigues, Directed by Cristina Genebat
From February 27th at Teatre La Biblioteca
Where does the impulse to help without expecting anything in return come from? Why do some people want a better world even knowing it’s impossible to change it? What is it that makes us human? Four actors address us as if answering our own questions: How do you run a refugee camp? How do you face a life-or-death decision? How do you return home after horror? These are the voices of humanitarian workers from the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. They recount the stories they’ve lived, the dilemmas they’ve faced, and the big questions that emerge daily from the smallest things in lives much closer to ours than we might imagine. Free from sentimentality or moralism, these voices speak out and share with us their direct experience of the impossible.
By
Tiago Rodrigues
Directed and translated by
Cristina Genebat
With
Joan Amargós
Màrcia Cisteró
Andrew Tarbet
Elena Tarrats
Live music, sound effects and video
Mar Orfila
Stage design
Bibiana Puigdefàbregas
Light design
Guillem Gelabert
Costumes
Gina Moliner
Movement assistant
Vero Cendonya
Director's assistant
Emma Arquillué
Tree builders
Taller d'escenografia Castells
Promotional video
Mar Orfila and Anna Molins
Poster's photography
Noemí Elias Bascuñana
Stage photography
Alex Rademakers
Stage managers
Maria Molist and Marc Serra
Show tecnicians
Quim Nuevo, Pau Segura and Martí Serra
Special thanks to Ahmad Alhamasha, Al Martinho, Álex Álvarez, Montse Bartui, Helena Cardellach, Irina Manrique, Anna Molins, Joan Parera, Vicenta Obón
A produccion by La Perla 29
I read En la mesura de l'impossible at a pivotal moment in life, a time of profound helplessness in the face of the hostile, bellicose, and utterly merciless turn our 21st century is taking. This century, which seems so overwhelming to us, appears destined to slip through our fingers.
En la mesura de l'impossible reveals itself to me, despite its title, as a possibility. The possibility of reclaiming, through theatre, some human values that, too often, seem banished by the algorithm: compassion, solidarity, community, empathy, attention to others, bonds, care... En la mesura de l'impossible is a poignant and necessary text that Tiago Rodrigues wrote base on real testimonies of humanitaria workers from the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, with the aim of foregrounding the personal experiences of all of them.
The stories told in En la mesura de l'impossible include a very broad spectrum of humanitarian work, and, above all, seek to focus on the humanity of the humanitarian. Humanity seen and humanity experienced from many different points of view. The individual or shared, genuine experiences, and the reflections that derive from them, added to the fascinating poetics of Tiago Rodrigues's theater, end up being deeply inspiring.
A character says: "It should be a three-act show. Act I: I will save the world. Act II: I will not save the world. Act III: The world cannot be saved. And then curtain."
I am not sure it should be a three-act show, and I also doubt whether the world can be saved or not, and I am afraid that asking that question is sheer naivety. What I do believe is that the world can be explained, and that it must be explained, and that is the mission of culture in general and of theatre, in this case.
En la mesura de l'impossible, makes it possible to talk about the impossible. To reflect on the impossible. It evokes the horror and absurdity of war from the subjectivity of the one who explains it, without teaching them. Without melodrama, without morbidities. It does so with care, with force, with respect, with a lot of humanity. And, even if it seems "impossible" with a certain dose of sense of humor.
We will understand that the impossible is unmentionable, incomprehensible, intangible, that we will never be able to grasp it, but perhaps, facing the abyss, we will be able to intuit it a little and that will be a lot. In any case, today, here, we do not want to stop trying.
Cristina Genebat
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