Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Londres

The playwright, stage director and one of the scriptwriters of «Money Heist» Almudena Ramírez-Pantanella, will talk about her creation and will read extracts from her latest work, «Golpe de gracia», in an event that will take place on Saturday, July 20 at 4:00 pm at Cervantes Theatre in London.

«Collaborating with the Instituto Cervantes and the Cervantes Theatre is a joy and a great opportunity to publicise my work abroad. I hope that opportunities for the representation of my works can emerge here in the United Kingdom,» she explains.

Throughout her work, Ramírez-Pantanella reflects on contemporary subjects including South Korean philosopher and essayist Byung-Chul Han, the French philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard and Italian writer, poet and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini.

«For us, it is important to support Spanish theatre in one of the world capitals of the theatre,» explains Ignacio Peyró, director of the Instituto Cervantes in London. «With our support of the talk and reading of Almudena Ramírez-Pantanella, we seek to show and give visibility to the talent of Spanish playwrights, as we have done in other cycles with the Cervantes Theatre and also in the cinema, with the screening of the Female Space films in the same theatre this spring «.

For her part, the associate director of the Cervantes Theatre, Paula Paz, recognizes that it is a pleasure to be able to receive Almudena again and open the doors of her theatre so she can share her experience at the residence of the Royal Court. «The Cervantes Theatre was born, among other things, with the aim of making known new Spanish dramaturgy and to serve as an international platform in London for our playwrights. This year at the Cervantes Theatre, ‘They take the floor’ and this Saturday we will be able to hear and learn first-hand the latest work of Almudena Rodríguez-Pantanella,» Paz adds.

At first, Ramírez-Pantanella explains that what interested her was the figure of the «influencer» and making a work in which, using her figures as protagonists, she could reach a young audience. For now, the theatre is where Ramírez-Pantanella feels more comfortable and where she finds more artistic freedom, since it offers her more possibilities to explore language, dialogues and images.

Ramírez-Pantanella has worked as a screenwriter in the celebrated series «Money Heist», an experience that she considers «important» in her career: «This is a series that has had worldwide success and being part of the team is a pride».

Residence at the Royal Court Theater

The playwright, who participates in a residency at the Royal Court Theater in London, gets the best out of this experience. «I have been immersed for three weeks in the English theatre, reading and watching theatre. I’m leaving with an infinite list of English authors, but also European ones, that I want to read», she emphasizes. Through meetings with different authors, directors, literary departments, development and production, the Spanish author has been able to discover some initiatives that are being carried out in the United Kingdom to support the theatre and specifically the dramatists, which she hails as, «very interesting to support public theatre.»

The playwright recognizes that she has had the good fortune to meet theatre writers she admires as Martin Crimp, and has also discovered «the inspiring personality» of the author Caryl Philipps. In addition, during the residency, she has worked with Sarah Maitland in the translation of the play ‘Golpe de Gracia’, which has given her many keys to rewriting the text, also along with Anthony Simpson Pike and Ellie Horne, who have helped her in the process of rewriting.

This summer, Ramírez-Pantanella will participate in a congress in Mérida on «Dialogues with the Greco-Latin Classics and the New Dramaturgies». In fact, she does not hide her desire that in the future he could write something for the Merida festival. In addition, in August she will finish the writing of a monologue that for now is entitled «Attacking the sun». And she is also in the pre-production phase of her first film, together with the production company Canacosmi Producciones. The film is already written, it is titled «The great machine» and they intend to start shooting it next summer.