Las Huecas (Barcelona, 2016), is a theatrical group made up of four actresses and a technician. They have no limits, they don’t think too much about why they do things and they navigate various artistic identities. Punk band, zine cartoonists, ethnographic researchers … and, if necessary, grave diggers.
LAS HUECAS
2021 / 06 / 15
How do you define yourself?
Núria Coromines (LAS HUECAS): At the theatrical level we have a company operation, in the sense that decisions are made collectively, but it is also true that a company is very hierarchical. Therefore, we would be more of a collective.
“We have done a couple of fanzines, recorded some songs, but all this, in the end, are games, possible identities”
You also talk about a punk band, cartoonists of fanzines, ethnographic researchers …
NC: (laughs) This is very theatrical. We have done a couple of fanzines, recorded some songs, but all this, in the end, is games, possible identities. We like this idea of doing some theater and playing with our artistic identities.
Júlia Barbany (LAS HUECAS): Yes, whenever we are doing a creative process for a piece they always appear as drifts and if we motivate ourselves we carry them out. We are not closed when they have asked us to propose other formats that are not a theatrical piece as such.
Is there a goal you want to communicate about?
NC: We have never considered what we want to achieve with this type of artistic drift.
” We are critical to the extent that we are critical of what we live”
But in what you have done so far there is criticism, an ode to disenchantment …
JB: Criticism comes out because we are critical of what we live and it comes out in a super natural way, but when we are looking for the dramaturgy of the piece we never say to ourselves “let’s try to make this scene pull more to one side so that the public can read that we we position one way or another. ” We are people who would not dare to make such a clear statement.
NC: This is what Júlia says, we are critical to the extent that we are critical of what we live. In other words, criticism is a consequence of our position in the world. As people we are together in this project and we position ourselves with respect to culture, history and with respect to the things that happen to us. That is why we do this theater. We do not sit and think “we are going to elaborate what criticism we want to convey”, but the process is more direct to the extent that we are who we are.
The project “Those that should not die” coincided with the boom of the pandemic, how did it influence?
JB: It was curious because it was not that we raised it as a result of what was happening, the increase in deaths from the Coronavirus pandemic. In fact, we did not change the piece as a result of this, what did change was the audience. An audience came that, due to the situation we were experiencing, had considered its finitude.
NC: There was a lot of staging of death, you saw many images on television of coffins lined up in garages, in very unpleasant spaces. And it is curious because we made the presentation in an industrial warehouse converted into an artistic residence and the floor was Portland. So when we left a coffin on the ground on stage, it was the same image that was seen on TV during the pandemic.
Your creative process gives the feeling of being very “Do it yourself”.
NC: Obviously, each project is different. At a methodological level, if we focus on “Those that should not die”, which is perhaps the most mature project we have done, we have worked for intensive periods of time during different phases. For example, the first phase was one of coexistence, like some colonies. For three weeks we did all kinds of experiments: we went to dig a grave, we made visits to the cemetery, games of all kinds … In the end, it was about finding a way to work on each project taking into account what we wanted.
Is there self-censorship in Las Huecas?
JB: We are very denied with the image that we give out. We don’t think much about this.
NC: I don’t feel like we’ve ever censored ourselves.
The issue that you are all women, does it have a goal or is it coincidence?
JB: We don’t have a set goal before things start.
NC: It is a matter of artistic affinities, but if Júlia had been an uncle then no problem, but it turns out that she is a woman. Artistic affinities are in many things and can also be in whether you are a man or a woman.
JB: Yes, maybe you have this affinity because you have the same look for being a woman too.
NC: Exactly, there are many things that generate an artistic look but not only to be socialized as a woman or to be satisfied with your identity as a woman, but we will not deny that we are all quite feminist. That we are women is a fact and that we are part of a concrete world is a fact, but the mental jerks that the public makes when they come to see you also constitute the scene and we play with this because we know that our identity will be judged from a or another way, but it will always be judged. That we are five women will always matter.
“We put ourselves at risk a lot on stage, we have not stuck knives but emotionally they are very powerful moments”
Have you had stage panic attacks?
JB: We put ourselves at risk a lot on stage, we have not stuck knives but emotionally they are very powerful moments. I am very shit … If I had not been accompanied by them I would not have been able to do some things that I have done on stage.
How do you see the scene in Barcelona?
JB: More things happen than people think. We are not the only ones doing such work. There is a very small context but it exists, and more and more large theaters are incorporating creations of this type. It is not something so underground.
NC: We are not the only ones who are doing more experimental work or whose theatricalities are not so conventional. There are many people doing things and in any case what there are not are the material conditions to carry them out. If there is no pasta and the spaces do not program enough, it seems that nothing is happening, but it is happening. The challenge is to achieve continuity and subsistence because we are in a very screwed up moment. Precariousness is a super beast.
What are your references?
NC: Angélica Liddell, but also the Venga Monjas.
JB: Miguel Noguera, Judith Martín, Poor chick, The Count of Torrefiel, The long men lying in the sun, Cris Blanco.
“When something makes us all laugh a lot, we know that yes, we must add this to the play”
You always have irony and a sense of humor.
JB: Of course! Much sense of humor, and very crinch.
You have a great fucking time working together, right?
NC: Ugh, of course! When something makes us all laugh a lot, we know that yes, we must add this to the play.
JB: Humor is super shared and for us it is very important to put it on stage. It is already part of our scenic and performance aesthetics.
How do you handle the criticism?
NC: I think we do well to sweat a lot from criticism. Let’s see, everyone likes to have good reviews because you send a screenshot to your mother, but the criticisms that are made with the tip of the tuberose, that dedicate two words to you and that there is no explanation, step, because I find bad reviews per se. The reviews in which the rock has dedicated itself to working a little with respect to what you were doing, are valued, regardless of whether they are good or bad reviews.
Movie, series, book and album.
JB: Now I’m watching The Office and I’m freaking out … It’s great!
NC: Me too Júlia! I pull back to see the timing of the joke. Peli, “You, me and everyone else” by Miranda Jolie. Disc “Hostile Hostel” by Mendra, which is the group of our technique. And book, the one by Charles Manson, “Helter Skelter”.
INTERVIEW: MARTA LUQUE
NOVEMBER 2021
MAUS®
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