Capulet goes to the appointment without a nurse and also wears a motorcycle helmet. She is Emma Arquillué, a 27-year-old actress born in Terrassa, who now plays Romeo’s eternal lover in the production of Shakespeare’s play, representing the La Brutal company, directed by David Selvas, at the Poliorama Theater in Barcelona. The interpreter with a shirt with puff sleeves, which would not be out of place in the original Verona of the unfortunate lovers or hapless lovers, as they now say, is the daughter (she has a twin sister) of Pere Arquillué, one of the best current actors of the Catalan theaters .
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Questions. Your dad is rehearsing the role of God in Paradise Lost, is that intimidating?
Answer. He’s done so many things… We’ve coincided on the billboard for a few days, me with Romeo and Juliet at Poliorama, he with an extraordinary monologue at Romea, 500 meters apart. I have been deeply impressed by his theatre, which I have seen since childhood; his virtuosity, his claim to self. When I was ten I told her I wanted to be an actress. And when I was 16, I dated him in Oriol Broggis Cyrano, in which he starred. He said two replicas and made many characters, confectioner, nun, soldier to make a crowd. When he was done, he said to me, “Ok, this is where your journey begins”.
P Now he even has his own company.
R Yes, La Bella Otero, with my partner Pablo Macho, who is a playwright, actor and director.
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P How about Juliet?
R Very good, very comfortable from day one. The director told me it has to be born within me and I found it in my most youthful and adolescent self. In the hours and forty minutes of the show she matures very quickly, you see her getting older because of everything she lives. So there I can also find them with my mature self. I am fresh, pure, but also very rational.
P In the play he is 13 years old. That’s not much even if you’re Elizabethan.
R But there is a lot of material, it is very extreme, everything is intense; It’s been softened traditionally, I wanted to give it more punch with the director; she and not Romeo makes the decisions. The one who has in their hands the power to change things. I want him to have power, innocence and everything.
P The show is packed with TikTok aesthetics and atmosphere. C. Tangana, is Shakespeare distorted?
R It didn’t seem like we didn’t do a shit to Shakespeare, but now there’s not so much romance and so tarnished. Things are more than here today, I catch you. It’s an approach for today’s youth, and it works! Then they will go to find the full words of Shakespeare, here they discover that he was not the bore they thought. Many tell us that I want to go to the theater more!
P What do you like best and what moves you most about what Julieta says?
R The “What hides a name?” that seems to me to be the engine of the work and the “window lets in the day and lets out my life”.
P Which characters would you like to play as Shakespeare?
R hamlet of course; I played Brutus in a workshop on Julius Caesar that was only staged with women.
P Ophelia? There is a certain resemblance to Julia.
R I love Ophelia; Yes, it’s girls who know what they want and who end up in tragedy because of their families. You are both brave.
P The two commit suicide, something unfortunately very timely.
R Suicide is more present among the very young than we think, we are not aware of it; she yes We thought Julieta wasn’t going to die, we didn’t want her to die for romantic love. After all, her suicide is not because Romeo is dead, but because she is devastated by the panorama that is above her.
P Are you romantic?
R I’m quite romantic. But I don’t like the fluff, the soft stuff. I like a candy cane romance. In the end, love is the force that moves us.
P What do you think of the debate about the ethical limits of acting?
R You have to find new ways. Everything was so normalized that you didn’t even realize they were abusing you. You have to set limits. That means communicating a lot, talking, being respectful, having empathy. The interpretation does not happen by having to dig into one’s bowels. I don’t think it’s necessary. I see it more as a game than a trade. I love falling in love with Romeo every night, but that’s not me, it’s Juliet.
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