L'Illa deserta speaks of any of us. Of how life can change if, one day, instead of going one way, you take another shortcut. She and he, unnamed protagonists, get stuck in an elevator for hours and that spark arises that is so quickly detected, or easily believed to have happened, even feverishly, and their stories advance and retreat to tell us what could happen if...
Miki Esparbé and Maria Rodríguez step into the shoes of the couple that wasn't and those that were, making the stage their own from the beginning, cracking a joke if the audience is slow to sit down. They even encourage them to turn off their phones and take a cough drop before the typical voice-over says it.
Both win over the audience with astonishing ease, without fuss, based on a lot of chemistry. They make them laugh and cry in the same scene, regardless of whether the protagonist is dressed as a dinosaur. They manage to awaken the wide range of emotions they themselves are feeling, moving masterfully, and in a matter of milliseconds, from screaming trapped in an elevator to a childhood memory.
Rodríguez and Esparbé, who had not worked together before, do not need anyone else to tell an entire life in just an hour and a half, without forgetting to include possible detours. They even allow the spectators to become the third character, representing that friend to whom you tell your confidences. And, if necessary, the coat she has just taken off is left to an audience member for a while, breaking that cold wall that often separates the stage from the stalls.
The play written and directed by Marc Artigau was born from a romantic disappointment of the author himself. "I fell deeply in love and wanted to make an anti-romantic comedy that said it's great to fall in love but it's okay if it doesn't happen," says Artigau. He wrote it four years ago in just 15 days and kept leaving and returning to rewrite it ever since, until the schedules, those of the actors and the theater, aligned, and it can premiere this June at La Villarroel.
This simple but well-rounded story about all that could have been and wasn't, with luxury guests like Javier Marías and Britney Spears, will close its run next Sunday, July 2, at the Teatre de l'Esquerra de l'Eixample. Few tickets remain available, after having sold out most days. But it will go on tour and Artigau is already preparing the next play, L'última f**king nit, which can be seen at the Teatre Lliure next season and, although it may not seem like it, will talk about Greek mythology from a nightclub.