"Women have no choice but to be committed and go all out."

'The Road to Mecca' introduces us to the true story of Helen Martins, a sculptor who decided to take control of her life but was labeled insane for trying to break free from social norms. It also features Elsa Barrow, a teacher who inspired Helen to dictate her own destiny. Amidst a fight for social justice and the end of apartheid, an intergenerational friendship of mutual inspiration and necessity emerges. Natalia Dicenta, as Elsa Barrow, and Lola Herrera, as Helen Martins, mother and daughter, reunite on stage alongside Carlos Olalla, in this story by Athol Fugard brought to the theater by Claudio Tolcachir. 'The Road to Mecca' will be performed at the Teatro del Soho-CaixaBank from today until March 9.

In 'The Road to Mecca,' her mother plays Helen Martins, who was called The Madwoman in her lifetime. How many women who decided to take control of their lives had to endure such labels, right?

There is a fundamental theme in the play, the freedom of choice; not only the freedom to choose about your life, how you want to live it, even how you want to end it, but also artistic freedom of choice. Let's remember that this character, Helen Martins, is a sculptor, a creative woman, so creative freedom is very, very important. The idiosyncrasies that this brings, considering Helen lives in a small, prudish, religious, and traditional town, lead people to censor her, wanting to change her life or tell her how she should live it. That's when Elsa's character, mine, comes in to tell her: "You live your life fully, they have no right to tell you what to do with your life. You choose, right?" So, I find it very, very important and assertive.

Have you also had to fight against something like this in your life and career?

All women, at some point, have had to face a predominantly patriarchal society. And then we've had restrictions, we've had obstacles in the way that we've had to circumvent to move forward authentically, in the authentic way that we desire and wish.

You describe yourself as a very assertive woman committed to social justice. Have you found common ground in this role in that sense?

Yes, we have that drive inside, that impulse. I also have, like Elsa, a sharp sense of justice, of what is right and what is wrong and what should not be and what should be at a social level. And yes, I have always been a very committed woman and I go all out. Well, you can't be otherwise being a woman in society, I think.

One of the great attractions of 'The Road to Mecca' is the reunion on stage between you and your mother, Lola Herrera, twenty years later. How has it been?

It's been wonderful. Indeed, 20 years have passed, which is no small feat, and we had been looking for some time for a text that could put us both on stage, and lo and behold, 'The Road to Mecca' came along by the hand of our wonderful, and I can't say it enough, director, Claudio Tolcachir, who proposed the play. When I read it and saw the character of Elsa, I said, "I apply for this character. I'll audition, do whatever it takes." But Claudio already knew me: when he opened his theater school, Timbre 4, in Madrid, I immediately signed up as a student because I admired his work, which is that of a complete theater man, my God, a man with such talent who knows so much about theater. And we've had a wonderful journey with this play, with rehearsals that were master classes. It's a dream come true.

On stage, my mother and I are Lola and Natalia, colleagues, not mother and daughter

Helen and Elsa have an intergenerational relationship of two friends who need each other, have you been inspired by your mother-daughter relationship?

We are mother and daughter, but on stage, we are colleagues. Each one performs her character, each one helps the other, we are, indeed, generous, but we already have the resources to be up there doing what we do with the years we have. Really on stage we are colleagues, we are Lola and Natalia and the family affiliation is left out.

You advocate for study, discipline, and concentration as essential ingredients for acting. Is this demand being lost among younger actors?

On the contrary. I think there has been a very large generational change. I believe there are people with a lot of talent, very, very prepared. They take classes in absolutely everything, from acting, to verse, to dance, to singing, to music... I am passionate about it. I am passionate that it continues to be study and discipline and the search and curiosity about life that drives them to move forward, right? And that it is their engine of action, their fuel to move forward.

Going to Antonio Banderas' Theater makes us crazy with joy. He is doing a cultural work in Malaga, and thereby in our entire country, absolutely admirable and wonderful

What do you find in theater that is not found in other formats?

I am passionate about all formats but the thing is that theater is live, no performance is ever going to be the same from one day to the next, it's the encounter with the audience, it's the here and now, feeling the energy that comes from the auditorium, exchanging with the energy we launch from the stage... I find it an absolutely exciting act, because you are here and now, and the audience is there, watching, breathing what you tell them. I believe that the act of theater itself, which is the act of communication, will never die. Someone tells a story and someone listens and is transformed by that story. I believe that what happens in a theater will never die.

Just ask Antonio Banderas, who has set up his own theater, the Soho-CaixaBank, which you are coming to.

Going to Antonio's Theater makes us crazy with joy. He is doing a cultural work in Malaga, and thereby in our entire country, absolutely admirable and wonderful. He is betting everything on culture, all on theater. We know each other a little bit and I admire him a lot.