Before the pandemic, Urpi Gibbons took the stage as the protagonist of Yerma (2019) with a sign that said: “Don't shut me up.” If now he were looking for an urgent poster for The Doctor, the play he directs in La Plaza, it would be one that invites dialogue. “It is what has moved me the most, and also the issue of identity, which goes through everything we put on ourselves, because society is a disaster and we have to be able to be,” he says.
On stage, Dr. Ruth Wolff (Diana Quijano) is an eminence who runs an Alzheimer's research institute and a witch to others. One day she provides emergency care to a teenager with sepsis, the result of an abortion, and denies admission to a priest sent by her family. In times of social networks, the discussion goes viral. “We are very used to prejudging. It's like these programs that announce: “Let the unfortunate person pass!”
Urpi grew up in a matriarchy and has three nun aunts. “Two of them very rebellious,” he comments. And, even though she has been an actress and trains actors for more than two decades, directing the story that Englishman Robert Icke rewrote terrified her. Not only because she wears the “work of the decade” title, but because she talked about identity and proposed actors to play characters of a different gender. “If you see a white actor, he may be playing someone of African descent. Or a woman to a man. It is part of the discourse of putting yourself in the other person's place.”
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Before The Doctor, I had spent a lot of time in hospitals. In 2022, her aunt, filmmaker Marianne Eyde, passed away. “I had to go through the process, she had cancer and was gone in three months. In addition to covid and fear, I had an issue, anemia and transfusions. I'm fine now,” she tells us and is surprised by the coincidences. “It is a moment in which I take into account the fragility of life.” Maybe he will leave the country again to study film, “his teenage dream.” For now, she is the protagonist of the film The House of Cookies, about a woman who returns to a place in search of her past.
—Is directing The Doctor a risk?
-Yes of course. I read the script and it made me panic. I have assisted Alberto Ísola, Chela de Ferrari. Chela presents me with this work, she tells me: “It's your turn to direct,” I read it and obviously I'm terrified, but then I say: “No, we have to do it.” For me it is a big jump, but it is not a strange jump. The playwright's proposal is a dissonant casting and I like works that demand the viewer's attention.
-And to you?
—They have been strong essays, there is a lot of argumentation. With Professor Bernhardi (by Arthur Schnitzler, 1912), the piece that inspired The Doctor, the topic was very specific, almost all of them were men. The protagonist is a doctor and the discussion is whether or not to let the girl in. That is, the issue was only religion versus science.
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—Have you related part of the work to what the coronavirus reflected?
-Clear! (he extends his arms). The pandemic revealed all the injustice. I find it impressive that someone who has sworn to defend life cannot save someone because he does not have such insurance. I understand that the doctors are not the owners, but there are decisions that are life or death. She considers two positions: “If she is dying, I have to save her” and “What does a dying woman do if we charge well for the other thing?”
—Speaking of vocation, in your career 'Sarita Colonia' was a 'boom' and it was thought that you would do more television. Then you went to study in Europe. What are you looking for in a project?
—Yes, there were a couple of soap operas that I didn't do immediately. It has never been my option to work in the show. I am an actress, I am a theater person, that is why I direct, teach and act. I remember that shortly after I got a scholarship for playwriting and directing, for two months in Spain and it seemed very important to me. So what am I looking for? That what I have to say, that what comes out of my gut, is involved in the project.
—And you recently did the social campaign 'What color are your dead', which remembers the victims of the protests at the beginning of 2023. Lucho Cáceres told us that because of this they probably won't be called for various projects. Do you agree with him?
—Of course, we know it and it has already happened to me (smiles). I am neither an actress nor a director who is totally concessive. It seemed super important to me to do it and it's not even political anymore. When people died at the Utopia nightclub, we all agreed that it had to be investigated because we wanted to know what happened. I am giving that example that can be very simple, because we are not even saying 'Dina (Boluarte) or no party!'. We're just saying investigate and punish.
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—Where is this project going? Are you looking to take it to the theater?
—It could be very interesting. On the opening day of the exhibition there was a little boy wearing his father's polo shirt. And I was thinking how people don't listen to him, how they don't know that someone was shot and his son was orphaned at four years old. So, it does seem to me to make it theater so that it can be heard.
—With The Doctor we talk about politics and the woman leader. Did you think anything would change by having a woman in power?
—It hasn't disappointed me because I wasn't excited, to be honest (smiles). I didn't think of Dina as a change at all. And I think that, even though my struggle is feminine, I would be against thinking that because she was a woman she was going to do something well. She is not prepared and if you do not have clear principles, woman, man, it does not matter. The entire political class disappoints me, not just her. I am very sad that corruption has invaded us. Everything is being taken away from Argentine neighbors and that is terrible, it is like the country's unconscious. People not only demonstrate in the squares, they speak with the culture. You censor that and you are silencing people. I hope it doesn't happen here.
Data
Trajectory. Teacher at PUCP. He acted in Aquello, Casi Transilvania and Yerma and on television in Eva del Eden. He directed The Good Soul of Szechuan.
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The doctor goes from Tuesday to Saturday at 8 pm and Sundays at 7 pm at the Teatro La Plaza, Miraflores.
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