A college of professors discusses justice at La Villarroel

BarcelonaNewton's first law states that bodies tend to remain as they are unless acted upon by an external force. In this statement, playwright and director Eu Manzanares saw a clear parallel with the way our society functions. Manzanares, author of shows such as Nessun dorma (2023) and Lo nuestro (2022), decided to title her latest production Primera llei de Newton because she felt it best summarized the dilemma the protagonists face: when the system is unfair, is it better to cheat or follow the rules? The production is part of the Grec Festival and is performed from July 1 to August 2 at La Villarroel.

The premise of the show is simple: in a highly complex school, Izan (Max Vilarrasa), who is in his fourth year of ESO, has copied a series of assignments and has been caught. The boy comes from a family with financial difficulties and has the opportunity to sign with a professional football team, but he needs his academic qualification. What should the teachers do? Pass him despite the cheating or make him repeat and force him to give up his opportunity? "Both the staging and the text present us with the possibility of putting ourselves in someone else's shoes, of looking at the same problem from a different place than our own," reflects Nelson Valente, who is responsible for directing the show. When bringing the play to life, it was very important to him "that each character defended their point of view".

In this way, the stage becomes a kind of dialogic ring in which everyone has their say. There is a young teacher (Dafnis Balduz) who has just arrived at the center and believes Izan should pass, and a veteran teacher (Rosa Gàmiz) in a completely opposite position. In the middle, the school's principal (Anna Sahun) acts as a referee, seeking consensus. "For her, the most important thing is to make a collective decision and ensure no one is left behind," explains Sahun. In parallel, the boy's mother (Sara Diego) bursts in like a hurricane and defends her son vehemently, because if she manages to get him to work playing football, it will solve many financial problems. Things get a little more complicated when a journalist (Lua Amat) appears, wanting to do a report on the school, as the educational project has just won an award.

A poetic coincidence

Manzanares wrote Primera llei de Newton at the request of La Villarroel before the teachers' strikes of recent months. "It is a poetic coincidence that it premieres now, after a year like the one we have lived through. Teachers protest little, educational staff deserve a monument," emphasizes the playwright, who for a few months worked in a high-complexity center. To be sure, she also let two teachers read the text who "saw themselves very reflected in it," adds the author. Eu Manzanares' works are characterized precisely by providing an accurate radiography of people who live on the outskirts and come from low-income backgrounds. "I started writing because I was tired of seeing humble people portrayed in the theater with an excess of victimhood," she points out. In Primera llei de Newton this portrayal falls mainly on the character of the mother. "I have tried to create a woman as realistic as possible, a brave and powerful mother, who fights alone and moves forward with her family in an unjust system," she concludes.