Synopsis
Iribarne is a guy born in the same town as Rouco Varela (yes, the cardinal) during the Monarchy of Alfonso XIII (the first promoter of porn films in Spain? it’s true, that’s him). He emigrated to Cuba at the age of one, coinciding with the inauguration of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship. After a couple of years in the Americas, our protagonist returns triumphant to be the son of the mayor (and of the Frenchwoman!). He began his bachelor’s degree at the beginning of the Second Republic, almost became a priest during the Civil War, but decided to go to Madrid following the trail of another illustrious Galician as soon as his dictatorship began (that’s right: the Caudillo). He tried so hard to be like him that he soon became his Minister, despite having shot his daughter in the arse two days earlier (seriously, it’s true, look it up). Having been Spain’s first and best opposition leader, he wanted to replace the Caudillo when he died. But it was not to be. He was not up for being in opposition. He had to settle for the post of Viceroy in his beloved Terra Galega.
IRIBARNE is an (irreverent) attempt to understand how we got here by walking hand in hand with one of those secondary but incredibly essential characters in the beautiful history of This Spain of Ours. Of this Living Spain, of this Dead Spain. But just to be clear: however much it may seem to be, this is NOT a biopic about Manuel Fraga. We would have loved to have done it, but we couldn’t fit it into a single work!
Note by the creators
Last 2021 we were looking for a new dramaturgical research project to embark on when Manuel Fraga came to our aid. Somehow, he appeared to us, not as a ghost, of course, but as a theme.
The centenary of his birth (1922) and almost ten years since his death (2012) were fast approaching. This sort of rounding of the dates suggested to us that it was a good time to take stock of a politician who had been of great importance in the very recent past and who had fallen into oblivion quite quickly.
IRIBARNE would be the title. What a good title, we thought, what a good title! We were thrilled to imagine the posters for the work with the image of Fraga in Palomares. But we decided to rein in these irrational impulses. It was clearly nothing more than a crazy idea, a spring passion, an infatuation that lasted two days, two weeks, a summer and nothing more.
But just that summer – the summer of 2021 – we embarked with our van to the Valencian coast, a coast beset by mass tourism which does not allow us to glimpse its essence. We began to wonder whether the man we considered our “Manoliño” might not also be one of the great architects of this overwhelming tourist (re)identity on the opposite coast.
Yes. Perhaps IRIBARNE was, in fact, a good project on which to embark. From coast to coast. And passing, inevitably, through Madrid.
Esther F. Carrodeguas and Xavier Castiñeira
