AMA is a story of super-anti-heroes of the everyday. You have to assume the “terrible”, the crude reality that you have to face if you aspire not to go crazy. We discover beauty in the terrible, and if there is beauty, there is hope for happiness.

Co-producers: Opéra Grand Avignon, Laboratorio de las artes de Valladolid, Donostia Kultura

Collaborating entities: Barakaldo Antzokia, Universitat Jaume I, Mostra Igualada

Synopsis

Mario lives in a loft, converted into a home and an artistic studio at the same time. His specialty is painting. His life has long succumbed to stubborn reality. His elderly parents require his care, as well as his young daughter. Mario works hard to take care of them, although the task seems very complicated. Mario has never learned to care from no one.

Mario faces a self-learning journey at home, surrounded by the past, and with an uncertain future

About the creation

The new theater project of Marie de Jongh company is called “Ama”, and it is the result of a research work that began three years ago. With “Ama” the company marks a substantial change in form and substance with respect to previous jobs. It is a large-format show that is aimed, this time, at an adult audience from fourteen years on. The zero-mask is also used, a mask that goes beyond neutral, or more here, depending on how you look at it, since it lacks any feature that humanizes it.
We will maintain, in any case, a feature that has characterized the company: we do not use the word.

AMA speaks of the strength of fragile and scared people. It is a hymn to the epic beauty of mutual care. From the care of our elderly parents, those who are dying little by little, taking part of our own life with them.

AMA is a work of strong emotions rescued from the everyday, where the prosaic and the fantastic are intermingled, the magic with the memory, art and laughter, the absurd and the tragic.

The tone of the play

We have always been interested in the teams that discover or exposed human feelings.

“I don’t want to be a bother to you.”

Mi madre.

Therefore, we do not want to sweeten or make up the harshness of reality, although, we find it interesting to contrast it with surrealism and beauty, providing a color palette that makes our “moving pictures” pieces that can be enjoyed by a wide range of audiences. The fact that we are going to use the zero-mask opens up a poetic universe that is reflected in the form and content of the project.

To begin with, we would like to answer why we decided to use the zero-mask:

We like the idea that the zero-mask places our characters at the edge of the abyss. On the brink of “dehumanization”. We find it attractive because we believe that, in a way, we all live in that thin and fragile border. Beyond this is the Terrible, where the monsters we fear live. Or, in other words, beyond is madness, because we have that border within us.

This way, we walked throughout the show on this fine line. Where it is sometimes difficult to discern which side of the border we are on.

Artistic Team

Writer and director: Jokin Oregi

External advice: Pablo Messiez

Assistan director: Ana Meabe

Actors: Ana Martínez, Javier Renobales, Anduriña Zurutuza, Jokin Oregi, Ana Meabe, Joseba Uribarri, Amets Ibarra

Scenography and costumes: Elisa Sanz, Ikerne Giménez

Music: Adrian García de los Ojos

Lighting Design: Felipe Ramos

Lighting: Unai Barrio / Edu Berja

Scenery construction: MAMBO DECORADOS SL

Scenography and costumes: Inmaculada Gómez

Production Assistant: Nagore Navarro

Executive Production: Pio Ortiz de Pinedo

Communication manager: Irene Zarrabeitia