argia.eus
INPRIMATU
'Eukalyptus'
Wealth of nature
Ainhoa Mariezkurrena Etxabe 2024ko urriaren 25

Text:
Nerea Ibarzabal, Jon Ander Urresti, Matxalen de Pedro and Beñar Urrutia.
Directors and playwrights: Matxalen De Pedro and Jon Ander Urresti.
Actors: Jon Ander Urresti and Beñat Urrutia.
Where: Casa de Cultura Lugaritz (Donostia-San Sebastián).
When: 20 October.

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The eucalyptus leaves are rectangular, thin and elongated, with four points at right angle, embossed, complex, simple, of paper. They have a stamp: numbers, images and symbols and their value based on color. It's banknotes.

The play smells great. The synopsis and dosage of the essence of eucalyptus thrown at the entrance allowed me to sit comfortably. I think it comes loaded with metaphors, meanings and criticism, with humor and irony, directly and indirectly, with clarity. That has been the case.

The forests of the Basque Country are no longer forests, they are plantations. They say it in one of the involuntary reflections they do in theater. Bringing eucalyptus to indigenous forests produces an unnatural nature that responds to an economic interest. It's math, if we talk about numbers, which tells us that it's faster to throw and sell logs in 15 years than to do it in 40, more to win in less time. As he leaves us with no more than capitalist thoughts, he decides that it is the best option, passing over nature and becoming the owner of the world.

The work is pretty narrative. The word is very important and, to my liking, the images are few. However, they offer moments of great beauty, such as when hands become actors, or the solidity acquired by the body of one of them to represent the trunk. The most significant thing is the game they do with the lights: green for the trees, red for corruption… They are constantly transformed and you saw the appearance. All the elements of the scene are artificial, enhancing the vision of the work. The only natural thing is the Basque of the actors; good and healthy, Biscayan, eternal and thankful, by the way.

It is interesting that to talk about this behavior and this logic has been directed to nature, as it is not the most common. This work talks about the exploitation of natural resources to the point of provoking the public and uses eucalyptus as a capitalist weapon. The two protagonists are forest guards full of contradictions that gradually come to their conclusions and talk about their reality. History is situated in a green and ecologist Basque Country, where it is also bought and where several ideals are buried. The beginning of the work gives the virtue to laugh at this rollizo theme. The protagonist, as in the body of the tree begins to be exotic, seeking its own essence, being original, alparicious, mohoso, new, attractive, great, the best. Who has never felt eucalyptus? And who has never dreamed of autumn?