Mauricio Dayub and a “Tightrope Walker” who sustains himself with more success

Mauricio Dayub: I am trying to make a season, I am not going to be a pioneer like Moldavsky who kicked off last year, then Susana came in winter and now we are aiming for Punta del Este to become another summer theater venue. In music there are Jaime Ross, Diego Torres, Soledad, but the novelty is adding a theater billboard from Wednesday to Sunday in January and not a skipped function as recitals do. The bet is to go to what is Mar del Plata or Carlos Paz. We will do 23 functions in a row in January.

Q.: To what do you attribute the success of “El equilibrista”?

MD: I think it mobilizes, mixes laughter with tears. In addition, viewers come to see it again with their parents or their children, and that has doubled the amount of audience. We have passed 600 performances, something unprecedented for a show born in the independent. Last year the Maipo and the Nacional were held throughout the year, I came to Montevideo to the Warehouse, with 800 seats; Córdoba I did two shows with a thousand viewers and I’ll be back in March; Rosario there were 12 functions with 800 seats. In addition to that we did Madrid, Israel, Montevideo, and in April Miami. The best moment of the year, Rottemberg sold it as the show in two branches, Palermo from Friday to Sunday and in the Center. It filled both. People came to the Chacarerean because of the proximity and intimacy of the room, the public was not lost but doubled. He continued to represent the independent for the production and the commercial for the traction of spectators. If I had shown it to Rottemberg before opening it, he would have told me that he didn’t see it for the commercial, he had to make his way to establish himself and arrive.

Q.: What is the central theme of the work?

MD: The family, what our blood bequeaths us, what we are. I thought I was doing a show to give myself a personal taste, I didn’t believe that what was happening to me was happening to others, it was a reserved topic and I felt that in society we are not worth what we really are but because of the car, the neighborhood and expensive things.

Q.: How valid is “El amateur”, which he revived after 25 years?

MD: It is already requested in other places for this year, I re-released it with Gustavo Luppi in 2022 and it was accepted. It is a new version taking into account what has changed in public perception after so long. The essence is intact but the change is on a visual level, with a more beautiful setting than the previous one, with totally new scenery, with a new musical work together with the author of the original, Jaime Ross. Again, those who remember it want to show it to their children today.

Q.: And here, what do you think is the main attraction?

MD.: The viewer does not know if the characters incarnated by actors will be able to arrive with such a physical effort. Now we are of a different age, the desire to fulfill a dream at 30 is not the same as at 50. At this time in Argentina, the possibility of fulfilling a dream seems somewhat closer after the World Cup, but we have come from many years of believing that we couldn’t be the best in a country so battered. When I premiered it, it was the concrete and real possibility of showing the public that one can climb into another’s dream and that the other’s can be their own.

Q.: What can you say about the room you run, the Chaca-rerean?

MD: With my partners, the same ones 20 years ago, we say that the theater is profitable if we can keep it open and not because it leaves money. If we were able to get past the pandemic, influenza A and so many crises, I think we can continue. I opened it after the 2001 crisis because it seemed that we were running out of country, in that case, may I find myself doing what I like the most.

Q.: How do you remember those times?

MD: What happens to most actors happened to me, I felt like a product that was not being sold, I went home like this and the next day I went out again. I was lucky and had the chance to trust that mine was going to happen one day. That made me not change my path, not modify my desire to fight for what I believed in. The theater is nothing more than the reflection of a moment of the heart of those who do it. When one does theater, he tries to put on stage what he feels and if the public shares it, it helps to finance it. I always did the same, at first no one was interested, I spent 20 years as an author, actor, producer, director and they found me mature. They accepted me for the same reasons that they had rejected me in the past. In recent times, the essence has been valued so little that many can get lost when they look like what is bought or works. I went the other way and it was not bad for me.