conversations in ten questions 33 : Joan Yago

Organized by GalataPerform and being the first playwriting festival in Turkey, the New Text Festival was held for the tenth time this year between November 1st and 28th, 2021, with a hybrid structure focused on the theme of "Breath", both in the physical space and digitally. We hosted Joan Yago in the last of our conversations with international playwrights whose plays were translated into Turkish and staged and read at the festival.

Ayşe Draz & Mehmet Kerem Özel

What is the essence of good play/playwriting in your opinion? 

Wow, I am not sure at all. But it probably has something to do with the fact of knowing what do you want to do to the audience, what do you want to happen to them, and then work hard thru your writing until make sure that this is working in the way you want.

Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?

I want to believe. Otherwise why would I keep doing that? I know that theatre has the power of “lighting the spark”: a show can make you doubt about something you were certain, can make you understand and connect with character so different to you, can make you realize that “something has to be done”… but this is just the beginning; a political theatre experience means nothing if it ends with the applause. Once the curtain is down and the show is over we should start working to do what it’s in our hands to change the world around us.

How do you think that the pandemic that we are facing at a global scale did and will transform performing arts? 

I think that digital theatre, theatre on streaming and any other source of what we used co call “recorded theatre” will evolve and become more common, interesting and accessible, but live theatre won’t disappear, as it has not disappeared in the last 2.500 years. 

Are there any artist whom you can describe as "my master", or any person whom you think influenced your art most? And if there is such an artist or person, who?

I am probably influenced buy many playwrights I admire… as Anton Chekhov, Caryl Churchill or Roland Schimmelpfenning. Also by young catalan theatre creators closer to me, as Pablo Gisbert from El Conde de Torrefiel company. But I have to admit that most of my referents would probably come from tv shows (as The Simpsons, The Office or Parks and Recreation) or graphic novels as Alex Robinson’s Box office poison or Charles Burns’ Sugar Skull.

When you are working on a piece, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works?

Unfortunately they don’t. My dreams are always very very boring. I take more inspiration from readings, Youtube videos and long conversations with friends.      

When do you decide to give a title to a work you are working on if it already does not have one?

Sometimes it is the first thing that comes to my mind, even years before writing. And some other times the brilliant title never appears and you end up having to chose over not-really-good options the day before presenting the project to your producer.

Do you believe your works resonate more with your local culture/community or more universally? 

I like to think that a play may become more universal when it is more local. But of course they may work better when they are performed in the very context and community where hey were created.

What are your main concerns when a play of yours is translated into another language?

I think translators are some kind of magicians and I strongly believe in their capacity to translate not just what is written in the play, but also what is not. When one of my plays is going to be staged abroad I always fear “Would it be too local?”, “Too generational?”, “Would it sound to naïf?”, “Would it still relevant or would it be old-fashioned?” But my main concern is always “Would the actors enjoy the text during the rehearsals? Or would they be bored to death?”

You mention somewhere that your plays are “always autobiographical but you never realize that until months after you have written them.” Can you please elaborate on the themes of your play Fairfly that was shared with us in the staged reading and in what sense it is biographical?

When we first premiered Fairfly in 2017 with La Calòrica we all were broke and close to giving up theatre. Fairfly was our first big success and it allowed us to jump to bigger private theatres. All of a sudden we were “making our dream true” but – as the characters in the play – we also had to deal with new questions, questions that brought us new arguments, and fights.

Which elements surprised you and which elements were just as you expected in the staged reading of your works by the participant artists of the New Text Festival in Istanbul?

It was very funny: the very moment that the actors stepped on the stage I already knew who was playing each character. I think it is because the director captured very well the energy of the four characters and the performers did an impeccable job. During the reading, I found many weird coincidences with the original production and also very different ideas; as the "time jumps" or the use of space. But my feeling was that “the vibes” in the room where magically equivalent.

[The Turkish version of this interview was published on unlimited.]