Synopsis

A House Is Not A Home is an adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck's Interior, intended to be performed in a non-theatrical space. The plot is simple: two people observe the interior of a house from the garden; they are forced to transmit bad news to its inhabitants. But the seemingly happy image of this home interior will make the goal difficult to achieve.
In A House Is Not A Home viewers access an outdoor public space equipped with headphones. In this space they will find a small standalone house and can freely spy on the lives of its inhabitants. This visual action is combined with audio material that will turn the viewer into an active witness to the situation at the core of the show, and illustrates how a single word can change the order of things and turn a home into an inhospitable space.

The project

The Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck wrote a one-act play of surprising poetic and emotional intensity. Interior is the title of this biting, piercing and seemingly simple work. The narration is almost circumstantial, a mere pretext to bring out emotions and create certain atmospheres, the true protagonists of the Belgian playwright's text. Under cover of the darkness of the night, two men observe the interior of a family house from a garden. They must convey unpleasant news to the family: one of their daughters has just died. But the vision of domestic tranquillity will present an almost insurmountable setback. What gives us the authority to shatter that peace? How can we face the certainty that a single word can change and upset the order of things forever? Are the little strongholds that we build (a house, a community) to protect ourselves from the world really safe? Is a home necessarily a physical space?
A House Is Not a Home is a creative show that takes Maurice Maeterlinck's original work as its starting point to explore new formal territories and seek new avenues of scenic experimentation. It is a theatrical experience conceived for an unconventional space: within the structure of a small house with transparent walls built especially for the show and located in isolation in the middle of a public space. A House Is Not a Home is also immersive theatre. Theatre as an artistic form has specific features that make it unique compared to other kinds of artistic expression: its unfolding in the present moment, the physicality of its content, the community ritual that is established between the spectators and the work. For this reason we believe that A House Is Not a Home is a good example of what could be the theatre's lifeline faced with other disciplines: the emotional experience (and not only the narrative) as a means of arriving at artistic reflection.

Credits

A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME
Based on Interior by Maurice Maeterlinck
A show by Companyia Ignífuga

Direction: Pau Masaló
Dramaturgy: Pau Masaló
Performers: Cristina Arenas, Eduard Autonell, Òscar Castellví/Mònica Barrio, Marina Congost, Anna Enrich/Lawrence Stanley, Toni Guillemat, Aleix Melé, Júlia Rodón
Set, light & costumes design: Irene Dobón, Alba Macfarlane
Music: Rayo-60
Sound design: Nicolás Villa, Juan Manuel Castrillo
Choreographic adviser: Marta Hervás
Assistant director: Roberto Romei
Scenography construction: La Forja del Vallès
Thanks to: Roger Bernat / FFF, Grup Xarxa (Torelló), Teatre esSela, Jordi Rodón, Ramon Autonell, Xavier Masaló, Mercè Aregall, Sílvia Ferrando, Victoria Szpunberg, Raúl Torres, FiraTàrrega, Claravalls neighbours, Verkami supporters

Duration: 70 minutes
Language: Catalan, Spanish & English

A House Is Not A Home premiered at FiraTàrrega 2015 and has been part of Bell Square Festival, London.

Reviews

Of all the programmed offerings, A House Is Not A Home is justifiably the most radical. […] The Ignífuga Theatre Company creates sophisticated as well as emotional theatre, technically thorough without forgetting that storm of feelings that overwhelm its protagonists as the production advances. A theatre that is seen, but above all listened to. Almost like an intimate conversation, a low voice that acquires a body and invades the quiet intimacy of its protagonists to show the extent to which the concept of the interior or intimate is a structure every bit as fragile and fleeting as the stage built for the representation.
Óscar Brox – Revista Détour

I was very absorbed in this visual feast, which by shutting out the noise of being outdoors cleverly draws the audience into the world of the residents. […] There were some great performances from this young company who were highly accomplished in delivering an interesting concept. A House is Not A Home creates a clever, beautiful conceptual piece of theatre, which performed outdoors under the stars, made it something rather special.
Lucy Foxell - London Unattached