"Ágata. Un evangelio" es la historia de cuatro niñas que coincidieron en el preventorio Doctor Murillo en invierno de 1969, y cuyos destinos vuelven a cruzarse casi cincuenta años después. También es la historia de Ágata Guerrero, una cuidadora que descarga su violenta frustración vital contra aquéllas que no pueden defenderse, del mismo modo que el régimen franquista inoculó el peso de su poder sobre mujeres y niños para asegurarse la perpetuidad de su opresivo legado.
"Ágata. Un evangelio" is the story of four girls who crossed paths at the Doctor Murillo preventorium in the winter of 1969, and whose destinies intertwine again almost fifty years later. It is also the story of Ágata Guerrero, a caretaker who unleashes her violent personal frustration on those unable to defend themselves, just as the Franco regime imposed the weight of its power on women and children to ensure the perpetuation of its oppressive legacy.
Notas. / Notes on the piece.
Desde 1940 a 1975, el preventorio Doctor Murillo (Guadarrama) acogió a miles y miles de niñas de entre siete y doce años de edad que eran enviadas allí para prevenir, supuestamente, el contagio de la tuberculosis. La realidad, sin embargo, fue bien distinta para muchas de ellas, puesto que en aquel lugar abundaron los malos tratos y las vejaciones por parte de cuidadoras, auxiliares y personal eclesiástico; y no sólo aquello no mejoró su salud, sino que en muchos casos la empeoró o supuso el comienzo de un calvario psicológico que aún hoy tiene graves consecuencias.
From 1940 to 1975, the Doctor Murillo preventorium (Guadarrama) received thousands upon thousands of girls between the ages of seven and twelve who were supposedly sent there to prevent tuberculosis infection. The reality, however, was very different for many of them, as mistreatment and abuse by caretakers, assistants, and church staff were widespread; and not only did this fail to improve their health, but in many cases it worsened it or marked the beginning of a psychological ordeal that still carries serious consequences today.
Sergio Martínez Vila is a playwright, theater director, and filmmaker. He holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid and also studied Film Directing at ECAM. After a period of teaching at the Cervantes Institute in New Delhi (India), where he taught Spanish language, he returned to Madrid to devote himself fully to writing and stage/audiovisual creation. He has been awarded grants from Sala Cuarta Pared, Fundación SGAE, INAEM, and the Centro Dramático Nacional, where two of his plays have also premiered. His texts have also been performed at Teatro Español and at festivals such as Surge (Madrid), Tercera Setmana (Valencia), Be Festival (Birmingham), and Scènes d'Europe (Reims). His first feature film, La espera, premiered in official competition at the Abycine Festival (2015) and at Sala Berlanga in Madrid. He also collaborates on various multidisciplinary projects, including his work as a dramaturg with Colectivo Fango and his participation as a dance playwright in the European project Performing Gender: Dance Makes Differences.
«When he writes, I feel like he becomes a cog in a bigger machine. He lends his voice and his words to things that reach him from elsewhere, in a magical process that give his works a certain hint of revelation; he is an evangelist of violence, a prophet of the cruelties that reside within us; a loud and revealing orator of the things that we don’t want to say ourselves, which he suggests should be sang from the stage. He’s never complacent and always challenges us. He takes us to the gates of hell and dissects that which is evident. We don’t escape unharmed from his texts or his representations. Sergio places a mirror in front of us, encouraging us to discover our most terrible blemishes. Each of his works is a well; a quagmire of the modern world and the miseries of the human soul. I try my best to refrain from using the word “soul”, but Sergio’s writing is certainly associated with it, from the apocryphal and the obscene, as if he were a mystic of the 21st century.» (Paco Gámez, taken from the prologue to “No temáis. Yo vencí al mundo”).
Escritura. / Style.
«Creo que cuando él escribe se convierte en una pieza de un engranaje más grande. Presta su voz y su palabra a cosas que le llegan de otro lugar en un proceso mágico que hace que sus historias tengan algo de revelación, es un evangelista de la violencia, un profeta de las crueldades que nos habitan, un oráculo revelador de lo que no queremos decir en voz alta y que él propone cantar en los escenarios. Nunca es complaciente, siempre nos confronta. Nos arrastra al averno, disecciona lo evidente. No saldremos ilesos de su lectura ni de sus representaciones. Y es que Sergio nos coloca un espejo delante para que veamos nuestras manchas más terribles. Cada obra suya es un pozo, una ciénaga del mundo contemporáneo, de las miserias del alma humana. Alma es una palabra que me da pudor escribir, pero creo que lo que escribe Sergio tiene que ver con eso, con el alma, desde lo apócrifo y lo obsceno, como si fuera un místico del siglo XXI.» (Paco Gámez, extraído del prólogo de "No temáis. Yo vencí al mundo").
«When he writes, I feel like he becomes a cog in a bigger machine. He lends his voice and his words to things that reach him from elsewhere, in a magical process that give his works a certain hint of revelation; he is an evangelist of violence, a prophet of the cruelties that reside within us; a loud and revealing orator of the things that we don’t want to say ourselves, which he suggests should be sang from the stage. He’s never complacent and always challenges us. He takes us to the gates of hell and dissects that which is evident. We don’t escape unharmed from his texts or his representations. Sergio places a mirror in front of us, encouraging us to discover our most terrible blemishes. Each of his works is a well; a quagmire of the modern world and the miseries of the human soul. I try my best to refrain from using the word “soul”, but Sergio’s writing is certainly associated with it, from the apocryphal and the obscene, as if he were a mystic of the 21st century.» (Paco Gámez, taken from the prologue to “No temáis. Yo vencí al mundo”).
Centro Dramático Nacional, Teatro María Guerrero, Sala de la Princesa, Madrid
Escritos en la Escena, Centro Dramático Nacional
INAEM, colección Autores en el centro
(Lectura dramatizada) Ciclo "Las funciones por hacer", El Pavón Teatro Kamikaze, Madrid
Convocatoria EURODRAM 2018. Texto propuesto para su traducción en los países de la Unión Europea