Explore the power and cruelty of social media. That was the intention of Molly Taylor when he wrote ‘Cacophony’, a work premiered four years ago by the young company of the Almeida Theater in London and which now reaches the Abbey Theater (November 15 to 24) in a production that premiered, in Catalan, at the Sala Beckett in Barcelona earlier this year.
Anna Serrano Gattell He made the version together with Oriol Puig Grau and directs the show, which is performed by Martí Atance, Laia Manzanares, Mariona Pagès, Chelís Quinzá, Clara de Ramon, Mima Riera and Clara Sans.
The director says that the work is the story of Abi, a young woman who goes to a demonstration against the acquittal of a soccer player accused of rape, in which her best friend, after a terrorist attack, suffers an accident; Abi then publishes a text on her social networks, “very emotional and very political”, which goes viral and turns her into a public figure, while placing her in the spotlight. A lie triggers his “descent into hell, his sinking and cancellation.”
«I was fascinated – says Anna Serrano Gattell of ‘Cacophony’ – how Molly Taylor dissected our use of social networks and the media: spaces of expression that often become dumping ground for anonymous attacks; in digital – but very real – terrains where violence and hatred circulate without any control. It is a very lively and unapologetic text that brings to the table issues that have surrounded us for a long time. Today is such a monopolizing contemporaneity that it is scary.
The work is inspired by the ideas of the book by Jon Ronson ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’ (its title in Spanish is ‘Humiliation in the networks’). “When public embarrassments come like drone strikes,” the author writes, “no one needs to think about how fierce our collective power could be. The snowflake never needs to feel responsible for the avalanche.
The director assures that her staging tries to be “essential” and “with very few elements on stage. With a simple vase with flowers we already know that we are in a hospital. Interpretation is the basis of the function. The seven actors (in London there were eighteen) play the twenty-five characters in the text. Clara de Ramónwho plays Abi, assures that the staging is “very dynamic, very ‘tik tok’; His life is told through fragments.
Molly Taylor has explained that Abi “was shaped by numerous contemporary influences such as #MeToo”, and assures that with the #SeAcabó – a hahstag that appeared after the scandal of the Spanish women’s soccer team – the text is updated. «More than ever, ideologies collide on online battlefields. ‘Cacophony’ delves into how vulnerable we are to the power and pressure of social media, the ease with which our online personalities can be built and, just as easily, torn apart.
Created for a company of young performers, the work especially connects, according to the experience in Barcelona of the Spanish actors, with young spectators – La Abadía has programmed two matinee performances for institutes, on November 15 and 20–. “It is a work that generates debate – the director and performers agree – the meeting with the public is fundamental in this function.”
Social networks – says Anna Serrano Gattell – do not come out very well in this text; “More than to communicate, they serve to send messages of hate.” But has the actors’ relationship with social networks changed after performing this role? “I’m just as addicted, but now I’m aware,” he says. Chelís Quinzá. “I don’t take them seriously now,” he adds. Clara Sans.
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