Ivan Benet i Aida Oset: "Our son has given us stability"

BarcelonaThey are an artistic and romantic couple and two very well-known faces in the Catalan theatre world. Ivan Benet (Vic, 1976) has a long career as an actor, which he has diversified in recent years by also working as a stage director. Aida Oset (Barcelona, ​​1983) combines music, acting, and teaching. Together they debuted with Lightness and other songs (2018) and now they coincide again with A species from Alaska, a text by Harold Pinter about a woman who comes to after 29 years of sleep. The performance will be at the Teatre Lliure from May 7 to June 1.

What is it about Pinter's play that prompted you to bring it to the stage?

— IB: Pinter is dedicated to telling stories that are impossible to tell. In that case, they didn't know what happened to these sick people who were left paralyzed, in a vegetative state. The Garment speaks of the moment when a woman wakes up, based on a true story, and it does so with a series of very interesting mysterious, metaphorical, and symbolic layers. Perhaps it's society that's asleep. What will happen when it stops being asleep?

— AO: The protagonist wakes up and decides to go back to sleep, not only because of how she sees the world but because she can't come to terms with the time that has passed. When she fell asleep, this woman was 16 years old, and when she wakes up, she's over 40. Her sister is a woman; the situation has changed radically.

In his previous project, Lightness and other songs, there was also talk of illness and nurses. Why?

— IB: There's a relationship between pathologies and theater that appeals to me. These are plays about how human beings change. Reading the biography ofOliver Sacks I went to talk about Pinter's play. Sacks said that only Pinter had been able to accurately capture what happened to the sick when they woke up. I'm fascinated by the world of mental health; after all, we are a sick society. We must take care of ourselves, and theater, in a way, helps us do that.

There are people, however, who shy away from the world of hospitals and doctors. Where does this fascination come from?

— IB: A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a chronic blood disorder, a vitamin B12 deficiency. I have to administer it artificially. When I was diagnosed, in 2013, the situation was overwhelming; it seemed like it could be much more serious. In the hospital, I realized that everything was very relative. Thanks to this, I've become friends with the doctor who treated me and have always found his world to be very theatrical.

— AO: They are places where life and death are at their most intense. Energetically, they are very powerful. And Pinter's play is precisely about this, about the connection between life and death, dream and reality.

How do you work as a creative couple?

— AO: We get along well; otherwise, we wouldn't have done it again. To get in tune with the show, I've been sharing all the music I've been making with Iván for a while now. And in the rehearsal room, I have complete confidence. He knows me well; I know what he wants from me at every stage of the process. He already knows how I handle nerves and insecurities. Each performer is a world of their own. The advantage of knowing each other well is that he knows how to guide me very well. I know he won't leave me in the lurch.

— IB: Theater people are used to blending their personal and professional lives. It's a very inbred profession: families are created. In Aida's case, everything is very natural. We're perfectionists, but we're not obsessive about work.

How to manage hierarchies?

— AO: We talk everything over. Obviously, there are moments of disagreement, and when we rehearse, we're in a vulnerable place. But Ivan creates a great rapport with the teams; he's very empathetic. He doesn't work from the director's hierarchy, but from a place of complicity and respect.

— IB: I'm against open hierarchies in this profession. There must be leadership and well-understood authority. As an actor, I don't like being told what to do. I prefer to work from suggestion: the joy of this job is influencing one another. The leader must listen. All the productions where there's been a good rapport are the ones that have turned out well, have made me grow artistically, and have taken me out of my comfort zone.

How do you relate to the profession?

— AO: I feel it's very unstable. I've been doing things, but I don't have continuity, and many years can pass between one project and the next. I make a big living from teaching; it gives me financial stability. My biggest challenge is knowing how to sustain that discontinuity. Imagine going months without doing your job: how would you feel? Each project becomes something very important, and it's hard to put it into perspective.

— IB: I have continuity; I'm privileged. In my class at the Institut del Teatre, there were three boys and the rest were girls. I graduated with a signed contract, and I've been working practically nonstop ever since. For a few years now, I've been fortunate enough to be able to choose something. Now I'm trying to combine acting, both in audiovisual and theater, with directing.

When Julio Manrique He became director of the Teatre Lliure, hired you as assistant director. But you left the position shortly after. Why?

— IB: At the time, our son was a year and a half old. I realized that work required too much of my involvement, and I wanted to be with him. I also realized that I was straying from what I wanted to do, which was to be an actor and director. The three legs were impossible. I could be a creator and assistant director, but then the most important leg, the father, ceased to exist. So I made the decision. In this life, you can't do everything.

How do you combine parenting with work?

— AO: Updating it week by week, project by project. The child is now three years old. I was on sick leave for the first six months, but Ivan couldn't take it.

— IB: I had some scheduled duties, but to be present at my son's birth, I pulled out of them, and so I wasn't entitled to sick leave. I had made a commitment, but I didn't have a signed contract, and they coincided with the first six weeks after the birth, which by law they are mandatoryI couldn't work, nor could I receive sick pay. This shows how unprotected we artists are in many ways. I applied for unemployment.

How has being a parent changed?

— AO: For my creative work, the change is huge. Before, I composed whenever inspiration struck me. Now, that possibility doesn't exist. Inspiration must come when I have time to create, and if it doesn't come today, I'll try to make it happen tomorrow. I feel like I have much less time, but oddly enough, I end up doing everything. I've become more pragmatic; now we have a shared schedule, and everything has to fit together. But it's a very beautiful experience. We really wanted to have a child; we'd been trying for years, and sharing it together is fantastic.

— IB: The advantage of our job is that when you're there, you're there a lot. The job is unstable, and in a way, our son has given us stability. He's always there; you can't say, "I'll get up later today." He's given us enormous strength and joy. Because he's taken us back when we're older—otherwise, I'd be ten! He's given us so much life.