The 25 people who have gathered in a small Madrid theatre over the past few months to consider identity, relationships, gender-based violence and inclusion aren’t exactly the crowd you’d normally expect to haunt a cutting-edge drama space housed in a former slaughterhouse. And that is precisely the point.
The men and women, aged between 65 and 84, are the first cohort of an initiative that aims to introduce those who live around the Matadero arts centre in the south of the Spanish capital to the joys and challenges of contemporary theatre. Last year, mindful of the fact that many of the older residents of the barrios of Usera and Arganzuela rarely attended contemporary theatre and would be unlikely to darken the doors of the new Nave 10 space, the Matadero and the city council came up with a plan.
“The idea of Nave 10 was to create a contemporary theatre space that provides space for relatively young directors and authors,” said Marta Ruiz, who leads the educational outreach work at Nave 10.
“But we also realised that the programming you get at a very contemporary art space, such as Matadero, can seem a bit remote to people over 65, who may see it as something aimed at a younger audience. That’s why we decided that, in order to create a dialogue between generations, it would be good to bring older people in and make them feel that they were a part of things.”
Last summer, Ruiz and the actor and director Mariana Kmaid Levy began spreading the word around local cultural centres and day centres that they were looking for two dozen older people to take part in a free project that would involve seeing 10 plays and attending classes, workshops and talks.
“From there we put together this group that has spent the whole season coming two or three times a month to see the shows, to do activities and workshops, to get to know the theatre a little more inside and to delve a little deeper into the themes of the works,” added Ruiz.
For the past nine months, those enrolled in Escuela de Espectadores Sénior (the Senior Audience School) have watched, dissected and discussed everything from The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant to Jauría, a play based on the infamous trial of five men who raped a young woman in Pamplona nine years ago. The most recent play was an auto-fiction two-hander by the actors and writers Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs about two ageing friends.
Some of the participants, such as Carmen Horrillo, have been delighted to learn how a production is put together on a technical level, but also to be given the tools to decipher some of the forbidding codes of modern drama.
“It’s easier for me now to explain why people should come and see this kind of contemporary theatre,” she said.
Isabel Cotado, whose membership of the programme has helped her navigate the early days of her retirement, feels it’s also been about shaking up old perspectives.
“I’ve learned about understanding and accepting people as they are,” she said. “I’ve also learned to laugh about my own life and my own problems – it takes the sting out of some of the nonsense you face in life. Life isn’t just about you.”
Kmaid Levy said that while the group’s “enthusiasm and life experience” had helped them interpret the works and empathise with the characters, the sessions had also proved instructive for the professionals involved.
“This a group of people who speak about theatre in different ways and have another vision and another way of looking at things,” she said.
Albet and Borràs also said their interaction with the group had yielded a different perspective.
“They gave us really interesting points of view about experiences they’d had and that’s always great,” said Borràs. “We normally get reviews and criticisms from friends in the profession or from critics or on social media.”
Luis Luque, the artistic director of Nave 10, said the basic idea of the project – which will resume with a new cohort later this year – was to forge links between participants, between local residents and the venue, and between art and a sometimes neglected sector of society.
“They’ve seen that contemporary theatre speaks to them, too,” he said. “It isn’t something remote; it’s something that calls to them as men and women and poses them questions.”
He highlighted Jauría, which is based on the court transcripts of a trial that provoked a nationwide debate about sexual violence.
“They’re been very honest and very passionate about Jauría and have felt compelled to speak because they’ve witnessed assaults and some have been abused,” he said. “They come from a generation where there was a very brutal sexism – especially the women. When older men see this, they say, ‘What did we do about all this?’ The questions they’ve come out with have been very interesting. It’s not about taking the blame; it’s about taking responsibility.”
Theatre may not point the finger, said Luque. “But it does show you your reflection in the mirror when it comes to how you’ve behaved.”
Marta Rivera de la Cruz, Madrid’s councillor for culture, tourism and sport, is keen to fight against the creation of “cultural ghettoes” and the idea that certain kinds of art are only for certain people. Proof of the school’s success came in a recent chat with a participant. “She told me she’d come to the theatre with her grandchildren and that she’d explained what the play was about before they saw it,” de la Cruz said.
Or, as Horrillo puts it, nothing ventured, nothing gained. “People should go and see this; they can decide afterwards if they like it or not,” she said. “After all, this is art, too.”
