I met Lalo España approximately a quarter of a century ago in the staging Isabel, three caravels and a charlatana crazy production in which the then very young actor shone brightly as the protagonist of this work by the great Dario Fo.

Since then, and thanks to his obvious talent, Lalo began to climb the ranks and is currently one of the most recognized and beloved comedians in the artistic environment.

The public quickly locates him, especially due to his constant television presence and really great characters like Doña Margara Francisca either Germanfrom the program Neighbors.

Fortunately, Lalo has not been satisfied with that media triumph and we constantly see him in works that challenge him as an actor. Examples in cinema are films like Pastorela, Third call either Whiskers; in soap operas like To love again either The hotel of secrets; and of course in theater, where he has participated in thirty productions with texts by William Shakespeare, Carlo Goldoni, Alessandro Baricco, Tennessee Williams, Jesús González Dávila, Alejandro Ricaño…

With this background, his reunion with Fo was only a matter of time and it just happened.

It’s about the work The queen of the homeoriginally titled The lady of your houseand which is part of a collection of female monologues grouped in Your house, bed and chiesa (Every house, bed and church), written in 1977 in which for the first time his wife, Franca Rame, signed as co-author.

It was precisely Franca who premiered this production as an actress there in her native Italy; and in our country it was originally performed by the great Margarita Isabel, and then it took an important turn when Héctor Suárez decided to bring it to the stage, by the producer Rubén Lara.

Today, Lalo España takes that baton and returns with this story that, unfortunately, despite the passing of the years, does not lose validity.

The queen of the home It is about gender violence, about the abuse that women continue to suffer in all areas, in this case their own home.

The queen of the home tells the life of Mariaa woman whose husband keeps locked up in the house, where she has to take care of a crippled and harassing brother-in-law, confront a nosy neighbor, suffer obscene calls…

Fortunately for him, one day a neighbor appears in the opposite window, whom he Maria He takes her as a confidant and tells him about his life.

The “neighbor” in the distancing technique that Fo works with is none other than the viewer. The character addresses him directly: she talks to him, asks him, involves him, incites him to take sides.

The most wonderful thing of all is that this “terrible” story is told with the greatest of humor. The audience does not stop laughing and with this, as Fo expected, they become aware of the seriousness of the problem.

Great choice for Lalo España to stage this text that, as I already said, never goes out of style.

The stage direction is by Antonio Castro, who has provided the staging with modernizing elements in audio and light, to bring it closer to today’s audience.

Bravo to producer Rubén Lara who once again shows his interest in bringing to stage texts that talk about the problems that women experience in a country, this one, in which every day there are around 11 femicides.

The Queen of the Home performs on Thursdays at the 11 de Julio theater in Narvarte.