10 minutes reading‘
Miguel Ángel Solá returns to the theater with For the pleasure of seeing her again, a work in which he stars alongside Mercedes Funes and which debuts on tour, to stop in Buenos Aires next winter. “It is such a beautiful work, so beautiful, that I immediately said yes. The idea was from Manuel González Gil, who made the version of this text by Michael Tremblay and also directed it. He told me that it will be useful for me in my recovery from the stroke I had last October and I’m rehabilitating. And it is also necessary to continue living,” the actor confesses. THE NATION.
During the talk, Solá gives details of the stroke he suffered, reflects on other problems he had throughout his life and how he had the drive to recover and move forward. Furthermore, it counts his love story with Fátima, a young costume designer and painter whom he met a couple of years ago doing the work My dear president. He still uses a cane and speaks slowly. He says that sometimes it takes him a while to accommodate his ideas, but he retains the strength and convictions that characterized him throughout his life. And he really wants to live.
—Is it good for you to go back to work?
—It is necessary, it is good for me and I hope it is good for people. I had already done this work in Spain and now I have a wonderful partner; Mercedes’ work is beautiful. She is a great artist. And he is also an endearing being.
—And you are directed by González Gil, with whom you have worked for many years…
—And he’s a great friend too. We have been working together with Martín Bianchedi for more than thirty years. We are the MiMaMa cooperative, by Miguel, Martín and Manuel (laughs). We did for many years The king’s musketeersafter The diary of Adam and Eve, double or nothing and For the pleasure of seeing her again. This is a very delirious comedy at times, very beautiful, but it is also sensitive material, a love story of a mother and a son. It’s like a trip to the past because the mother is no longer there. It is armed with memories, with moments of coexistence. Actually, he is a writer thanks to his mother. He is a type of art thanks to his mother. And she… how good she is! What an actress and how pretty she is!
—Did the director propose Funes?
—Yes, and also my wife, Fátima, because I knew her and she told me that she is extraordinary.
—Is your wife an actress?
-No. She is a painter and does work that thrills to the core.
—How did you meet?
—In the theater, because she is also a clothing designer and a costume designer. He was a wardrobe assistant My dear president, the play that we premiered two years ago at the Teatro Apolo. And we fell in love.
—It must be a very important support in your recovery…
-A lot. My loved ones have made me a praetorian guard of love and art. I’m struggling with the after-effects this has left me with, but I’m fine. I have a part of me that is very well and another part that says: “Mr. tenant, get out of here and go away” (laughs). I need one more year of kinesiology rehabilitation because I still use a cane.
—You had various health problems throughout your life and you will always recover. You are a Phoenix Bird!
—Yes, I had bad times, many accidents and I was leaving. The first one was very hard and it is the one that is taking its toll on me now too because it affected my entire nervous system. It broke my core and at that moment they said very ugly things to me. And yet, I got ahead. Mine is a good body. But the mind is also good because one can recover with the body, but the mind has to accompany. You have to be very strong and want to move forward. You have no other choice. If you want to continue living, you have to push. And continuing to live means not only passing, as the song says, but getting involved and experiencing. You also have to think about the quality of life you want. I didn’t want to live with this accident that I had in the Canary Islands, because they told me that I was going to become a quadriplegic and how I was going to leave that disaster for my daughters. And I left. And here I am.
—Your three daughters live in Spain, do they visit each other? (María Luz and Cayetana are the result of her relationship with Blanca Oteyza and Adriana is the result of her last relationship with Paula Cancio)
—The tickets are very expensive. Life is very expensive there and life here is very expensive. So, it’s hard for me, but the youngest is going to travel in the middle of this year and the oldest is going to travel a month later. I am very happy.
—For many years you lived in Spain, now you decided to stay in Buenos Aires?
—I had to leave in the 90s because they threatened to kill my eldest daughter, María Luz, who at that time was very little. He had been there ten years before, working. But it was not a choice to live in Spain. Later he had to do it because he couldn’t live here either.
—And why did this last return happen?
-Because Gustavo Yankelevich called me to work on My dear president and I didn’t have a job there, so I came here to work. I did the work and then they offered me another project that did not seduce me. Then my friends Manuel and Martín appeared with For the pleasure of seeing her again. And not only that, they also helped me a lot: Martín lent me his sister’s house to live in for a while and then Manuel lent me his youngest daughter’s house, Manuelita.
—You come from a long lineage of artists, is it true that you are the ninth generation of actors?
-Yeah. There was no chance to do anything else (laughs). The point was not to disappoint them and keep the artistic quality of my aunt Luisa Vehíl and my mother Paquita high. Those were the last generations and they were born here. An uncle was born in the dressing room of a theater in Córdoba and Luisa in Montevideo, also in a dressing room. And my mother was not born in a dressing room because they put her grandmother in an ambulance and sent her to the hospital.
—Do you think your destiny was marked and that you kept your bar high?
-I hope so. I was lucky, really, very lucky. Today young actors are not going to have that school because there is no cinema, there is no fiction. And that, in our time, was an everyday thing. I think our generation was the last one that could develop in that way. Afterwards there was a small aftertaste, but small. Another generation, although accustomed to a different technique. I worked with Diana Álvarez, with María Luisa Avellaneda, with Alejandro Doria. I have had very good teachers. They were integral directors who struck out the cameras and breathed with the actor. It was wonderful.
—Are you nostalgic?
—Sure, of course. Not only was there work and you could choose, but you also learned a lot from all your colleagues. I had a very nice school that continued with my home. That’s why I say I was very lucky. We actors are all brothers in that we want to do it as best as possible and according to our criteria and our capabilities. Sometimes we do it better. Other times we get caught out or we don’t feel like it. And yet, we are privileged and we don’t realize it. Luckily we still have the desire and there is the theater. We debuted on April 17 at the Teatro Coliseo in La Plata and continued touring throughout the province of Buenos Aires. We will also be in Córdoba, Mendoza and Rosario. And we are waiting for a room to be in July at a theater on Corrientes Street.
—What view do you have of our country?
—I am an informed optimist. So, I think this has to be done regardless. It hurts, whoever it hurts, because if there is no culture, there is no life in a country. If there is no media, if there is no information, there is nothing. It is impossible to make disappear what does not want to disappear. And that will depend on what we Argentines decide. It does not depend on a person, on the madness or delusions of a government. It depends on an entire society.
-So…?
—Some believe the lie that we have lived from above all our lives. And it is not like that because we have studied, we have invested hours and hours and money and health at work, seeking a better perspective. And culture could advance. There have always been crimes and they are fought with honesty, decency and light. That’s why I invite everyone to see For the pleasure of seeing her againbecause it is a very intimate work; a reunion The mother-child relationship will exist until life on this planet ends. It is the most important affection, with its pluses, with its minuses, with its comings and goings, its madness or non-madness. The mom is the mom.
—If you had the pleasure of returning to your mother, what would you say to her?
—To my mom? I love you. I love you. What can I say? Another artist. And I would tell him that now I have this big project and I have to achieve it. I know that people are going to enjoy it, they are going to feel it like a gift. For a long time they turned theater into a kind of “hahaha” and thought that what matters is that people laugh and forget. It is not like that because people also have feelings that have nothing to do with laughter, but with the depth of the desire to hug, to kiss, to love. I’m not against comedy. I love comedy, but as Borges said: “I love garlic, but I don’t like obligatory garlic.” So, if it does not have a deep place to settle, comedy becomes watery and there comes a time when it becomes a grimace, the masquerade of what laughter is.
—If you look back at your life, what balance do you make?
-I complied. I did a good job, I didn’t give myself over to the enemy. Never. And I am an admirer of Serrat, I don’t admire just anyone. I am an admirer of Manuel González Gil, I do not admire just anyone. I am an admirer of talents, of people with ability, of those who have invested their time, their lives and their money in this. Manuel fed me and hundreds of actors throughout his life. And also, in many cases, like mine, it gave me quality of life and work. And Martín, the other leg of this game, has been a man who, through his music, made me feel that it is possible to project flight. There are people who don’t know what flight is and have a hard time associating it with the human condition. But from Leonardo da Vinci until today, man flies.
The work For the pleasure of seeing it again It is presented in La Plata this Friday the 17th, in Devoto on the 18th, on the 19th in El Palomar and on the 24th in Villa María. Meanwhile, on April 25 and 26 they will perform in the city of Córdoba. On May 2, in San Fernando, on the 3rd in Mercedes, on the 8th in Banfield, on the 9th in San Justo, on the 10th in Canning, on the 15th in Quilmes, on the 16th in Morón and on the 17th in San Miguel.
