La España negra. Jácara para un pícaro
(in Spanish, all ages) Spanish
Theatre company name: LaGriot’te
Cast and technical team:
actress – Sandra Gade
Director – Nazan L. Bamio
Author – Francisco de Quevedo
Adaptation – Nazan L. Bamio
artistic design – LaGriot’te
Graphic Designer & Social media: J. Carlos Degal
Collaborators – CASCO, Fundación Atenea, Fundación Centro Tierra de todos
Tell us a bit about your theatre company:
LaGriot’te is a theatre company founded in 2020 in London by two Spanish creatives: Cultural Producer and Stage Manager, Nazan L. Bamio, and dancer and stage actress, Sandra Gade. After several years working together on various productions, they decided to join forces to develop this multidisciplinary project, which is built on the primary bases of research and performance, two facets of the same vision. Nazan and Sandra complement each other and, working together, they accomplish their goal.
Nazan L. Bamio graduated in Stage Direction and Drama from the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid and rounded off his professional development with a number of workshops held by Carlota Ferrer, Sanchís Sinisterra, Marcelo Díaz and David Ojeda, among others. He is currently studying for a Master’s Degree under Katie Mitchell at the Royal Holloway in London. He has performed in various productions in theatres in Madrid, including #ElCasting (Teatro Quevedo and Teatro Arlequín Gran Vía), Vete de mis sueños (Sala Guindalera and Teatros Luchana), El vuelo de Edipo and La mirada del escorpión (Sala Trovador).
Sandra Gade graduated in Expressive Drama from the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid and in Classical Dance from the Conservatorio Profesional de Danza de Cádiz. She completed her professional development with a number of workshops held by Karina Garantivá, Andrés del Bosque and Ana Vázquez de Castro, among others. In 2013 she was awarded First Prize at the Certamen Jóvenes Creadores de Madrid for the play Totum Revolutum. One of the highlights of her career so far is Desde la otra orilla, an original idea of hers, produced by Lafinea Teatro and still being performed today on an extensive domestic and international tour.
La España Negra. Jácara para un pícaro is their inaugural production working together as a company.
Synopsis of the play:
LaGriot’te, a twenty-first century troubador, has a chance encounter with a young man who is recording obscure words on a tape recorder. These soundbites turn out to be more than they first seem, because the youngster has been recording his experiences in an unfamiliar country in the form of a diary. Coincidently, his stories mirror the ones related by Quevedo’s Scoundrel four hundred years ago. The young man, who becomes known as ‘new Christian’, disappears by means of black magic, but the tape recorder bears witness to what happened.
LaGriot’te, thanks to her troubadour’s skills, decides to relive this story, enacting all the characters that the young man recorded and it turns out that, throughout the whole week of Carnival, he has trudged around a large part of the city, finding nothing but examples of hypocrisy and corruption.
In this first part
our new Christian
arrives at the Court of Madrid
at Shrovetide.
It’s a maritime arrival, because
he’s pelted with vegetables
and he nearly drowns
in a sea of turnips.
At a nearby inn,
the landlady and her daughter are
gossipping about our lad,
who won’t say where he came from.
Meanwhile, the pair of them
are scheming how to make their
dishwater look like a tasty stew,
and scrounge a few bob
from their lodger,
an embittered cop,
who’ll only make an arrest
if he gets a huge backhander.
And finally a roaming minstrel
who pays his way by swindling
having perfected the art
of moving the goalposts.
Social Media:
J. Carlos Degal – Instagram: @drama.illustrated