Their trademark is a pair of pajamas. That’s why, when we ask them to come to the photo shoot in the clothes they feel most comfortable in, they bring two identical pajamas for a change of wardrobe. “As we don’t have an office, we meet by video call. Or at each other’s houses. And going dressed like this is the most comfortable,” explains Iciar Ventepan (Madrid, 21 years old). Together with Flavia Forni (Stuttgart, Germany, 26), she is the creator of Cia La Peatonal, a theatre company created a year ago. “We have the joke that we are two business women: “We act, we direct, we produce…”, reiterates Forni. And more than a joke, it is a reality. They do it all. Now they are celebrating their most recent success: their first own production, I’m hungry, it’s Thursday, will be part of the Lara Theatre’s programme until 12 September.
Her devotion to theatre began very early. Ventepan had already dabbled in the creative world: she wrote and painted. And that artistic vein was magnified at the age of 14, when she joined the youth group of the Réplika theatre school. “I knew that was what I wanted to dedicate my life to.” Forni’s path was different. Her parents—he was from Madrid, she was Italian—were classical dancers at the Stuttgart Ballet, in Germany, where they met. “I lived there for eight months. Then we moved to San Lorenzo de El Escorial and, since I was very little, my parents wanted to try out if dance was for me,” she says. It went wrong. “I liked the stage, but dancing wasn’t for me.” And, like her partner in La Peatonal, she joined Réplika.
Forni graduated from theatre school in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic environment that almost seems like an illusion of a dystopian past. And, like many students at the time, she set out on a path without a clear future and with more doubts than solutions. “When you do a conventional degree it is different. You do a degree, then a master’s degree or a competitive exam… You know what the path is to get a job. In the theatre, no,” she says. She knows this well: while she was studying theatre she studied Modern Languages and Literature at the UCM.
Ventepan started out in Audiovisual Communication, but left to focus on theatre. Several jobs complete her CV: assistant in an audiovisual production company, waitress or administrator. But she always combined it with the performing arts: with the production of other works or her own or as an actress. All of them, as is often the case with young people, emerging.
Federico García Lorca was the one who brought them together. In 2020, when Forni was beginning the final stretch of her studies at Réplika, she participated in a production by the author. “I was fascinated by his interpretation,” recalls Ventepan, who was in the audience. Although it was not until 2023 that their paths joined. Ventepan called her. Forni did not hesitate. They met in a café. They were not wearing pajamas. Both had written down everything they needed to create Cia La Peatonal: the registration data, which could not be registered as a company, but as an association due to the capital they had (they did not turn to their parents for endorsement)…
In the summer of 2023, La Peatonal was born, and it did so with I’m hungry it’s Thursdaya text by Flavia Forni that is based on her experiences with the breakup of friendships. “My friends have broken my heart more than my partners,” says the author. And that is what this production is about: assessing whether the bond is worth it or not despite the time through the friendship of Fran (Flavia Forni) and Aris (Asier Albertos), and which can be seen every Thursday at 10:00 p.m. at the Lara theater until September 12.
I’m hungry it’s Thursday It premiered at the AZarte hall in Madrid in September last year, and its success led to it being extended for a month. Shortly afterwards they also presented Fuck and win and A game of ping pong. And in February 2025 it will arrive White marriage, a production based on a text by Polish playwright Tadeusz Rozewicz about sex and discovery. It is now being re-released I’m hungry, it’s Thursday. Forni tells how, “in an almost impulsive attack,” in March he wrote an email to the programmers of the Lara theater talking about his first written production. He hit the mark.
In April, success came again: they participated in the Mutis Emerging Theatre Festival in Barcelona, where they were awarded the best play and best direction (this award went to their partner in the company, Jaime Cano). And in November they will present I’m hungry it’s thursday in book format at the International Theatre Book Fair, at the National Drama Centre (CDN).
The question arises: is it worth maintaining a friendship? “Over time, no. People change. Sometimes it is not worth being friends with someone you have been with for 15 years. Sometimes the bond is stronger with someone you have known for a year.” Ventepan says, almost involuntarily looking at Forni. They are proof of that bond.
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