We first met Jorge de Juan (Cartagena, 1961) when we interviewed him a while back in 2014. Back then, he was telling us about his return to London and plans of setting up The Spanish Theatre Company in the capital…
The title of Jardiel Poncela’s most popular work conjures up a pastoral image, quite middle class. A sleepy little girl in a springtime garden, stood beneath a flowering tree… It’s not until the very end that the audience finds out that the title is actually referring to the place where a body has been buried — that little girl from the pastoral image was actually the victim of a family of lunatics and a class system in which social appearances don’t quite mirror the truth.
On a sunny London morning in February, we meet Jorge de Juan, Spanish actor, director and producer who came to live in London just a few months ago, following a long career in Spain. He tells us that in the short space of time since he arrived, he has been to see more than fifty plays in the capital. Amongst these, of course, are a handful of Spanish classics performed at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney.