Diana Volpe as a bereaved mother.
‘La Caja de Fósforos’ are well-known for taking on challenging risks. They have never shied away from difficult subject matter, nor feared mistakes or experiencing rejection from their audiences and critics (as in their controversial production of Hamlet in 2005). Now, they are exploring schizophrenia. Mental health might often find itself in the news and yet is seldom talked about.
The play explores schizophrenia from the point of view of a mother (Diana Volpe), a wife (Fiona Gordon) and two characters (the charismatic Charlotte C Carroll and Julio Bouley) who have suffered from it themselves, When I first heard about the subject matter of this work, I have to admit I groaned, but this excellent production is not what anyone would expect. This play opens a new angle on the debates on this subject and the feel is totally authentic. The play ends on a positive note of hope and each one of the four actors play out a monologue of their experiences, with occasional prompts. The scenography is sparse and minimal, a table, a chair, a few items and a voice, a monologue, that feels like an intimate confession.
Diana Volpe opens the play as the mother who loses her son to the illness. It is one of the most moving monologues I have ever heard, underplayed, with no histrionics. In a quiet voice that is almost inaudible at times, Volpe pulls us into her world so it becomes tangible and real.
Diana Volpe is a Venezuelan actress who is also an author, producer and a director herself. She trained in New York at the H.B. Studio and has worked all over the world from Tokyo to Barcelona, not only in her native Venezuela. Her performances have often attracted acclaim and on two occasions she won the Municipal Prize for Best Actor in Venezuela (2005- 2009). She has always worked closely with Orlando Arocha, who wrote this adaptation and they both work tirelessly to promote new works and train new talent, lamenting that their tight theatrical team has now dispersed all over the world due to the disruptions caused by the political turmoil taking place in Venezuela.
“The play was originally put on in Venezuela, in an environment so hostile the government raided the theatre to confiscate props and turn off the electricity so they couldn’t perform. Orlando and Diana continued by asking the audience to use their phone lights — and they finished the play.”
Orlando Arocha
The ‘Caja’ developed from a group named “Teatro del Contrajuego”, formed 20 years earlier. But then they lost their base at the ‘Ateneo de Caracas’, when the government took over the space to convert it into a university. This left them with nowhere to rehearse or perform, nor store their scenery, the costumes or the props. The Director, Orlando Arocha, was educated in France at Paris’ Sorbonne Nouvelle University. The recipient of many prizes, including the ‘Chevalier des Arts et Lettres’, he has distinguished himself not only directing the classics but also contemporary works and he has a particular love for opera, having worked on over 20.
Losing their proscenium led to many moves, as he says: -
“We started to work with new actors and with Ricardo Nortier we were searching for an alternative space that was available in Venezuela, to use as a stage. A space of 80m² appeared and it is tiny so that is why we called it ‘La Caja de Fósforos’, (The MatchBox). This year, in May, we celebrated our fifth anniversary. The political situation in Venezuela affected us every day, individually and as a group. We managed to get some sponsorship and support from some Embassies… as well as from our own artistic personnel. The situation is unsustainable for any length of time, there is a lack of liberty and all the young actors are abandoning the country, we train them, but then they tell us they have to go, because if they remain, they will have no future. We have lost so many colleagues in this way, people with whom we had worked for a long time and now they’ve gone… to Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, England, everywhere… even Colombia, but we still keep in touch!
We first opened ‘La Caja’ with a version of ‘Macbeth’. It was very, very political, dwelling on the struggle for power… we were referencing, indirectly and not so indirectly, the situation in our country…. Ours is a theatre that wants to engage with the people… we want to explore issues and themes… from the most political to others, such as this (schizophrenia)… “We play contemporary works as if they were classics and the classics as if they were contemporary.”
The troupe have been trying to deal with the violence at home, but it finally reached a point where it annulled all activities and they were down to no more than survival mode. This led to the decision to perform and work more abroad… “Building bridges”, says Arocha… we’re trying to create spaces where we can develop contact so we are not closed in: -
Charlotte C Carroll
‘We Must Throw the Cows down the Ravine’ explores many aspects of the schizophrenia: the onset, the stigma, recovery and relief. The quality of the writing also attracted English actress Charlotte C. Carroll who plays one of the two sufferers of the disease. She performed with such natural ability and she was so deep in character, that when we met later, it was a shock to meet a different person entirely!
Carroll, who also produced the play, started her career working in production, alongside Quentin Tarantino on ‘Django Unchained’. Later, she appeared in ‘Burnt’ with Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller. She was nominated at Sundance Anderimage as ‘emerging director’ and won Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign film for her production “Red Crayon”. She was also honoured to be the first woman director to open the Egyptian El Gouna Film Festival.
Performing in this production at The Cervantes Theatre was a new experience for her: -
“This is my first stage performance ever … in my entire life… except, I think, I was a tree in a school play… but it was in my gut. I’ve wanted to be on stage for a long, long time but it had to have the right message and the right vibes, and the whole scene around Orlando [Arocha] is quite incredible … you know… he can get blood out of a stone and Diana [Volpe] is also a director and they work together. She is not the director of this play, but she helped me in the performance. … Diana Volpe is actually my mother-in-law and she encouraged me to act… ‘Perhaps you can try this role…’ she said!
It’s a very important text and with the right venue and the right audience it could go far… you realize that everyone around you could be suffering or not, with the same things and you think that’s everyday life and people really have got into a rut about schizophrenia and mental health and this work opens up the debate… The projects I choose to produce and get involved in are all socially impactable, that is what I want to be involved in.
Yesterday, in the play, everyone was saying; “I have an aunt that was sectioned”, or “I have a sister…” or a “ best friend”, and I thought, ‘wow that’s crazy’ because we would never have had that conversation and yet, it's all around us, all the time, and I think that is right, as it’s so important to open a dialogue, though we’re not the only ones doing it, of course, there are lots of mental health charities. It is a tool to start the conversation and make people feel more included. Isolation is one of the craziest things that can happen, because people isolate themselves from something that’s different, be it a sickness or an illness which is not really that different, which we can manage, it if we get the right tools to do that. That is the best thing, and that is what the play is about.”
Charlotte C Carroll, Volpe and the team at ‘La Caja de Fósforos’ are hoping to stage this play in other London venues in the future, maybe return to the Cervantes which was an ideal setting for an intimate work like this.
