«If it contributes something, I will have done very well not to retire. “If it doesn’t contribute anything, I’ll be fooling around… But I would like to continue working.” Whoever speaks these words is Pilar of Yzaguirre89 years old, and refers to the Autumn Festival of the Community of Madrid, which opens on November 6 and this year celebrates forty years of life. Pilar de Yzaguirre directed, together with Jose Luis Ocejothat first edition -inaugurated by Josep Carreras with a recital at the Teatro Real -, already Mariano de PacoMinister of Culture of the Community of Madrid, thought that entrusting her with this year’s programming would be a nice way to pay tribute to this feisty and passionate woman. «To say that I was excited is an understatement. When he proposed it to me I was scared, because I am aware of everything I have lost over the years. What I did forty years ago is unimaginable at my age. Because I went, for example, to Paris in my car in one go…»
Madrid is, culturally, a very different city than it was forty years ago. «Thanks to the Autumn Festival. There were people who were outraged by what we were doing. It was difficult to get the public used to the new trends we were bringing, but I was calm, I knew that the shows we were bringing were going to succeed. Pilar de Yzaguirre does not hesitate when asked what she is most proud of having brought to Madrid. «The ‘Mahabharata’ of Peter Brook -answers emphatically; The show, lasting eleven hours, was presented in the second edition, in 1985. It took so much effort, so much! There was no money, there was no place to present it… We saw it in Avignon, and I decided to co-produce it with my company, Ysarca, because I wanted it to be seen in Madrid. I have no idea how I did it, but I did it; today it would be impossible.
It premiered, he remembers, in the midst of a very tense atmosphere, “because of how he works and what he transmits. But it was such a beautiful sight…” He had problems seating the guests, and even more so when the Queen Sofia He announced his presence at the last minute. «Everything was absolutely sold. I remember that Javier SolanaMinister of Culture at the time, sat on the stairs. And Peter Brook was very angry: “This cannot be, she cannot arrive at the last minute and want to sit down, she is not a Democratic Queen!” But anyway, in the end everyone sat down. We had the most wonderful premiere of the century, and the audience did not want to leave after eleven hours of show. “It managed to catch everyone, and it served as a business card for me to bring other things.”
Pilar de Yzaguirre, together with the choreographer Maurice Béjart and the dancer Jorge Donn
Forty years have passed, and in this edition Pilar de Yzaguirre wanted to bring international artists such as Robert Lepage, Wajdi Mouawad or Jo Stromgren Kompani. «Oddly enough, the budget is now much smaller and I have not been able to do what I would have wanted. But I have insisted on bringing ‘The Seven Streams of the River Orta’, by Robert Lepage, which has not come to Spain and which is wonderful. The company no longer has it in repertoire, but I asked him to bring it as a birthday gift, because that’s how I feel… It’s a memory of the 20th century, with its good things and its bad things. It has been difficult financially, but Lepage saw me so in love with the show that he made an effort. And in this profession, love and passion are above everything. There is something that makes you dedicate yourself to it: and it is not money at all, it is the need to transmit what the creators do, to open ourselves to different thoughts and trends.
How have the international shows presented at the Autumn Festival influenced Spanish creators? «I will tell you what Adolfo Marsillach told me in one of the first editions. “And now what do I do?” Today, there is still no shortage of exceptional creators who set the pace. «There is Wajdi Mouawad, I met him because my daughter got married in Canada, and on one of my visits they told me that I had to see ‘Fires’, which was the best thing in the world at that time. I thought it was an exaggeration. There were no tickets, but in the end I managed to sit in a very uncomfortable folding chair. After 15 minutes I was already crazy and thinking about how I was going to get it to Spain (then it lasted nine hours). I offered it to Mario Gasand took him to the Slaughterhouse. But he didn’t go to see him until the third day, and he came out excited. “Pilar, you have brought me the best playwright in the world!”»
With Peter Brook
«Theatre, the performing arts -concludes Pilar de Yzaguirre- is that which is capable of moving human beings, of transporting them. It’s what takes you out of your world of comfort. In half an hour I know if a show is going to move me or not, to make you lose your identity for a while. And you don’t have to understand, says Pilar de Yzaguirre. You have to feel. «Theatre is emotion. And know, of course. All those wise men who only speak and read, but do not feel, tell you to shut up, that you have no idea what you are talking about. But what is truly mine is to feel. Make your hair stand on end, make you excited. I get excited and feel a lot. And if you don’t feel, you can’t be a good programmer.
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