A round product for Factoría Echegaray

Do you remember the beginning of 'Noises Off'? At the start of the movie, Michael Caine is about to premiere a stage play. ... He wanders through the theater halls, nervous, taciturn, elusive, unable to contain his terrible fear of failure. Quite the opposite of Juan Fleta, who from the hall of the Echegaray Theater, before opening doors, greeted and chatted with several people who were waiting outside. He seemed confident and rightly so. 'Canners of Time', which he signs as author and director, is probably the most well-rounded work that has passed through Factoría in years, at least since 'Gólosa'.

Having a proper script helps a lot, something that is often missed in Factoría's selections. Fellow playwrights from the Association of Playwrights (AAT) awarded Fleta the XIII Jesús Campos Prize for this beautiful story about four women who live, work, and take care of each other in 1975, in a canning factory. And having Jorge Colomer as the lighting designer, who makes a beautiful proposal with light, I will repeat myself, it's one of the best I've seen in Factoría in years, always serving the play. With virtuosity, he manages to raise walls without laying a single brick, and always captures these women in their small cans of preserves. There's more: Fleta bets on sound, a protagonist in the many transitions, and María Luisa Tomás shines by creating a clean, powerful, genuine, Andalusian soundscape.

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To put it in perspective, if the play were a song, it would be one by María Peláe. Because it breathes authenticity, wisdom, accent. It recovers the memory of those women who, with a proverb, said nothing and yet said it all. Fleta succeeds by letting them be themselves, heroines in their own way, without mustachioed Odysseuses, despite the miss Julia's bell, that anachronistic, invisible, and subjugating male presence during Francoism. A presence that, far from being overcome, has hit us this week with a lawsuit by a police inspector against her boss for an alleged sexual assault. Spain still smells of Varón Dandy.

This play should be seen just to enjoy Inma Caballero. She plays two very different characters and builds a fascinating personality with astonishing naturalness in both

If all this were not enough, this play should be seen just to enjoy Inma Caballero. She plays two very different characters and in both, she builds a fascinating personality with astonishing naturalness. She already left me speechless in 'The Invisibles' and with this play, I think she should be considered as one of the best actresses currently in Málaga. At a very high level, the cast is completed by Alejandra Cid, Virginia DeMorata, and Magda Salinas, each bringing a special touch to their canners. The four made the female audience shout along with them "bread and freedom for all".

So it's normal that Fleta was so calm, I think he knew he had a good product in his hands. A product, however, that I think still needs more rhythm in the scenes, more agility in the transitions. At times the play interrupts too much, it doesn't let you get carried away. There is time, six performances are scheduled until February 28. And, above all, I think it lasts too long, almost two hours, with one of those endings that are like when someone says goodbye but doesn't quite leave. No matter, the real ending was a standing ovation in a packed Echegaray Theater where no cell phone rang during the performance.