03. “America,” a play by Sergi Pompermayer

A full-length contemporary play. Translated from Catalan by Steven Capsuto through a grant from the SGAE Foundation. Professional performance rights available.

America played in Barcelona in 2022–2023 at the Villarroel Theater to positive reviews before going on tour. It returned to the Villarroel in late 2023.
 

SYNOPSIS:

KAYLA, a young Black woman from Barcelona, is a drama student who works in a pub in London. Her boyfriend MAX, also Spanish, is a rich white undergrad studying finance. KAYLA is invited to his parents’ mansion outside Barcelona for Max’s birthday: a small gathering in the garden next to the former stables.

Max’s father, ANTONI, a billionaire hotel magnate from an old-money family, distrusts Kayla and is appalled at his son’s new progressive ideas. Whenever the conversation gets too tense, Max’s mother, CRISTINA, changes the subject and drinks more alcohol.

Over dinner, Max’s grandmother, who has the beginnings of dementia, lets slip that the family’s generational wealth originated in the slave trade, something Max has never mentioned to Kayla.

From there, the play rams head-on into Spain’s longtime role in enslavement and the fact that some of today’s richest families in “respectable” industries first became wealthy by enslaving people of color. In this story, “America” is not just a continent: it’s also the name that was imposed on ENITAN, a 19th-century enslaved woman who appears in a few scenes.

The script also touches on issues of urban renewal and the endless acquisitiveness of some people who already have far more than they could ever need.
 

PRAISE FOR THE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION:

“**** Great theater.” –Time Out Barcelona

“A brilliant reflection on Catalonia’s slave-trading, slave-owning past.” –Marcos Goikolea, Teatre Barcelona

“Pompermayer depicts a toxic family environment with a frivolous, drunken mother; a cynical, unfaithful, manipulative father; a thoroughly naive son still very much an adolescent; and a grandmother with disabilities who becomes the catalyst for the conflict, establishing the link between past and present to powerful effect.” –Ara (Barcelona newspaper)

“Avoids the romanticized narrative often used to justify Catalonia’s role in [enslavement]… A fine piece of theater at the Villarroel, essential in every sense.” –Xavi Pijoan, Teatre Barcelona