The comedy about two couples at war

BarcelonaPep and Marta became friends with Miquel and Mamen because their daughters were best friends at school, but they reached a point where they could no longer bear it: Miquel and Mamen make and break plans without consulting them, and sometimes they are very expensive. The latest, an exclusive vacation aboard a boat. Since they don't know how to get rid of them, instead of talking civilly, Pep and Marta make a drastic decision: they tell Miquel and Mamen that they are separating. This is the starting point ofThe plans, the comedy that Yago Alonso and Eva Mor premiere this Thursday at the Teatre Gaudí. "With the play, we wanted to talk about everything: the relationship with other children's parents and the relationship between parents and children. And also about the pressure we put on ourselves as parents, the pressure our children put on us when they reach a certain age, when they start interacting with other children at school, forcing their parents to interact." Yago Alonso, who also directs the production.

The plans It is the result of a commission made to Alonso by one of the actors in the play and producer, Roger Cantos, with the only condition that it be a play for four actors. The cast is completed by Llorenç González, Núria Deulofeu and Laura Porta. The play is a sitcom whose tone Alonso defines as "naturalistic," but from the beginning the attitudes of Miquel and Mamen, played by Cantos and Porta, reach a point between grotesque and terrifying. "They had a great time doing the play, and outside, and that always shows on stage. There's a connection, there's chemistry," says Alonso, who is the author of hits like Sheep, together with Carme Marfà, and The presence"It's not a comedy with one gag after another," he adds, "but the humor comes from the situation, sometimes even pathetic, and from what some parents invent to try to leave other parents."

Very Different Marriages

Both couples are truly like oil and water. "There comes a point where Pep and Marta wonder if they have a relationship with Miquel and Mamen because they want to or because their daughters are friends, which is something that happens to us at the end of life: there comes a point where they ask you why you're friends with someone. Because you really get along great or because life allows you to?" "But Pep and Marta don't have the courage to admit they don't want to continue in this relationship, and the only thing they can think of is to tell a somewhat extreme lie," he explains. From there, the play begins to grow: "The story takes off because many things begin to be exposed in which everyone in the audience can see themselves represented. Not just the father or mother, because in the end we all have friends, we are all children, so we also see ourselves represented in each other's situations," explains the director.

As Núria Deulofeu says, some situations are so laughable that they were put to the test during rehearsals and when they premiered the play in Sant Boi. "We started laughing at the slightest thing, because we were seeing what the other characters were doing, and at the same time you felt a sense of shame, because you saw that to take one step forward, the characters take two steps back." "To cover a hole, they fall into a bigger one," Cantos emphasizes.

With this play, which will run until September 14, Alonso also wanted to tackle different relationships: "We portray two very different types of couples. Some are a couple because they are very close, and others are a couple because they complement each other, and where one doesn't reach, the other does." She also wanted to talk about motherhood beyond the first years: "There's a lot of talk about the first two years, and it seems that after the fourth or fifth year, people don't talk about it anymore: babies are like little people, they go on their own." And how does it all end? Obviously, the team ofThe plans It doesn't give any clues about the outcome. "The play goes through many places, it's like a roller coaster. They're two couples trapped, and life doesn't change," Alonso warns. In an hour and a half, the characters can't turn their lives upside down, but they can "reach a consensus," Alonso simply says.