Pepa Plana: "I would really like to be able to play for a while at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya."

ValleysThe clown from Valles, Pepa Plana, will perform at the Teatro Principal in Valls on Friday, November 14. She will represent At every turn, her latest show. This clown, who claims to live "in the world of yes," has received awards such as the Sant Jordi Cross and the National Culture Prize throughout her career, and, as she reveals in this interview, she has just received a new "gift from the Gods."

How long have you been clowning?

— As a clown, being conscious and all that... I premiered my first show in 1998, but I was already flirting two years before that. It's been almost 30 years.

She's always said she didn't have a plan B. But if she couldn't have been a clown, what would she have been?

— Clown.

Is there no alternative?

— I'd still answer you four or five times the same. I didn't choose it. Everything brought me there. You can't escape, it was my turn, and what luck... Slava Polunin, a Russian clown I greatly admire, says that it's easy for a clown, but for someone who isn't, it will be impossible.

Clown and clown.

— If you told me "you can be two things," I'd really like to paint. More than writing—I also admire people who write or make music—I'd really like to be able to explain things graphically, in drawing, painting. But as Polunin said, it will be impossible for me.

Do you remember the first time you put your nose on stage?

— Yes, and it was unexpected. I was studying drama, it must have been in 1986, at the Barcelona Theatre Institute, and I heard that there was a stage An international theater group, with a great lady of European theater, Ariane Mnouchkine, from the Theatre du Soleil, who was like God on earth. It was free. You just had to show up and she'd tell you if she'd accept you or not. A friend and I hitchhiked to Paris. There was a line of people... When you walked in, she'd ask you why you wanted to do it.stage, which was two weeks old. I told him I was really looking forward to playing. I felt like an idiot answering that, but they picked me. That's when I put on that delicious mask for the first time... that nose set me free. WowWhat a beast. But I still denied being a clown for ten years…

And with such a small mask, have you ever been embarrassed to go on stage?

— I'm quite shameless... but sometimes you're afraid of ridicule. But I rehearse a lot. I'm terribly cowardly!

Is it through a lot of rehearsal that you find a number that's sure to work? You'll laugh at this!

— Yes, but you can never trust good ideas. Especially when you're trying to make people laugh.

So how do you do it?

— Seduction. There's more work to be done in seduction. They'll understand you, they'll enter your universe, your madness, and they'll love you. Then they'll laugh at the most fragile things. If the audience doesn't love you, they'll never laugh.

And does the public love you?

— Sometimes not! Hahahaha. There are many shades of humor. Some tell jokes, they offer local, verbal, direct humor, but it becomes outdated over time. There are also comic actors who perform vaudeville shows and play a character. A delightful shade of humor, but always linked to a character. We clowns create humor from a world of abstraction, seeking the human essence. And this makes us universal and timeless. And we don't live as characters. It's not like saying, "I'll play the clown now." It's the being. I am. That's why every clown has their own essence. We don't dress up, we dress up!

After so many years on stage, have you lost your fear?

— No! I get frantic before going on stage. I have to bungee jump. And no matter how many times you've bungee jumped, you have to put on the harness, make sure it's secure, cross the bridge, and see that... yes, yes, I've bungee jumped many times, but now you have to jump that bridge...

How is In Every Step?

— I set myself three powerful challenges for this show: not speaking; fitting everything into two suitcases, because I work far away, far away, and the suitcases need to weigh less and less. And the last one is... aaaaah! This one is truly daunting: taking off my mask. I thought: what if I don't need it anymore? And I've achieved all three challenges.

And is it so hard to go out without the mask?

— No. I don't remember. I've also changed my makeup, which is like another mask. And I think I'm essentially more of a clown than ever. I'm the clown, not the mask.

Where would you like to perform right now?

— I've been lucky. I haven't had it fall out of a coconut tree, but I've been very lucky and have worked in wonderful places around the world. The Odin Teatret in Denmark, the National Theater in Caracas, in Argentina in wonderful theaters... and here too. I'd really like to perform at the National Theater of Catalonia. Because I've performed in national theaters abroad, and yet that door...

Is there a bite?

— Yes, several times, presenting different projects and with different directors, but it just doesn't work out. I'd also really like to work at the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona. But the TNC thing... I don't want to receive all the awards in the world, but, please, I'd really like to be able to play for a while at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, in the big house, because it's also mine. But right now, there's no chance. But then I think... if it's going to happen, it will. And then the gifts from the Gods come. And they come to see you to propose that you teach at the Theatre du Soleil, at the Cartoucherie in Paris.

Oysters!

— I started there as a child and now they come to pick me up from the beloved Cartoucherie… it's wonderful.

And when does it start?

— In April, I started crying because life is wonderful.