Emma Suárez enters the mind of Carmen Martín Gaite

BarcelonaIt had been many years since actress Emma Suárez had a theatrical project in hand, and even more so since she had set foot in the Goya Theatre. "The last time was with Get off at the Moor, in the 80s. I was a teenager, now I'm a lady," the actress recalls. Although cinema plays an important role in her professional career with films such as The red scab (1993), The gardener's gos(1996), The next skin (2016) andJuliet(2016), Suárez was eager to return to the theater. Now he does so with the stage adaptation ofThe back room, the novel by Carmen Martín Gaite (1925-2000), coinciding with the centenary of the Spanish writer's birth. "The text gave me goosebumps, it moved me, it provoked me, I felt something very powerful, fear and vertigo at the same time," explains Suárez. The show premiered in February at the Teatro de La Abadía in Madrid and will be at the Teatro Goya until July 27, as part of the Grec Festival.

Adapted by María Folguera and directed by Rakel Camacho, The back room It is a journey to the dream world of the writer ofBetween curtains (1957) and The Snow Queen (1994). The protagonist, C. (Emma Suárez), searches for inspiration one night before. Visited by a man in black (Alberto Iglesias), she embarks on an adventure through her childhood memories, bringing to light people and landscapes she had buried inside her mind. "Carmen Martín Gaite speaks of literature as a refuge and the importance of recovering memory. It transports us to the place where she took refuge cutting out ladybugs during the war, reminds us of the lemon ice creams she had when she was little, and leads us toward the possibility of reinventing memory as a dream," the actress summarizes.

For the Catalan audience, Iglesias offers a piece of advice: "Please come to the theater, leaving the logical and analytical part at home. Come and experience the courage to enter Carmen Martín Gaite's dreams." Her character, the man in black, serves as a gateway for the writer to the most fantastical and chaotic world. "He's a character she invents, but who escapes her control. He becomes responsible for the protagonist's journey toward the light; he ignites the spark," says Iglesias. "He asks her the right questions, guides her through her own memory, allows her to find courage, confronts her fears, and tells her to dare to lose herself in the labyrinth. From this, a new writer will emerge," adds Folguera.

The Sieve of Fiction

Staging such an abstract and imaginative novel has been a challenge for the team. "We went through an extensive adaptation process to prunes the text and retain its essence without losing the book's key phrases," says Folguera, who defines Martín Gaite as "a pioneer in autofiction." The writer, in fact, said that "secrets aren't told, they're told," and although many of her creations draw on her experiences, she always sifted them through the sieve of fiction. That's why Suárez's approach is based on the creation of a new character, rather than trying to embody the author. "It's not an autobiography, and I don't represent Carmen Martín Gaite, because that wasn't what we had to do," the actress emphasizes.

According to Camacho, the audience will leave the theater with "the overwhelming need to have their own space for imagination." The director recalls that the Civil War took over the writer's "childhood and the place where she gave free rein to her fantasy," and emphasizes that, through her literature, she managed to convey the message that "it's important not to let ourselves be taken over by this space, because it's what defines us."