Festival de Teatro de Málaga
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"Am I looking at you?" she asks before starting the interview. And she immediately laughs as she realises how strange the question sounds coming from someone who is blind. But she clarifies, "I'm actually looking at you, but I don't see you." Anyone or anything in front of her appears as a light since she lost her sight 20 years ago due to diabetes. And yet here she is, portraying a unique Lady Macbeth in a play she produced herself and which is about to receive the Ángeles Rubio-Argüelles Award at the Festival de Teatro de Málaga. If acting is already complicated, imagine if at the same time you have to count the steps from one place to another on the stage, listening to the sound of footsteps on a dry leaf that marks the space and following the carpet on the floor that shows you the way. Just "tricks" for her but superpowers for anyone else.
Zira Williams, the artistic alter ego of Esther Ruiz, makes her debut at the Malaga event this Sunday 26 January (7pm, admission 20 euros) with the premiere at the Teatro Echegaray of I, Lady Macbeth, a play written by Pablo Bujalance and directed by Lorena Roncero. Inspired by true stories of homeless people, the director has imagined a queen without a crown, with practically nothing. Her belongings fit in a dingy cart and her home is a bench in a park in Malaga. "This Lady Macbeth has been on the run since she allegedly escaped from a tower and arrived here with nothing," says the director from Espacio La Amarilla, in the La Luz neighbourhood, where they are rehearsing the show.
The haughty 'lady' portrayed by Shakespeare is still there, admits Zira, but there is also the fragile woman that Bujalance now discovers. "She has had everything and now she has nothing. Suddenly she is on the street, she is homeless. At other times she has been very strong but now she is afraid and very lonely," reflects Zira Williams. Her character constantly moves in this duality, between the signs that remain of the great lady she was and the wounds of a woman for whom even everyday things, such as washing up, are very difficult. And it is with this vulnerability that Esther Ruiz connects instantly. "Much more than with the Lady Macbeth of the castle, I identify with her, although she has nothing to do with me. She is a strong woman who we are now taking to the terrain of fragility, fear, loneliness," she explains.
Esther/Zira is also a strong woman. "I had to be, I had no choice," she says. But there is no sadness, nor resignation, in her words. On the contrary, acting is part of her second life, of her reinvention since her early twenties, when blindness took her away from hairdressing for good. She then began to do what she had always wanted to do but never could because of life's obligations, even though she knew that at the time it would be much more difficult. "But here I am, not giving up." This in spite of her mobility problems and her occasional shortness of breath because of asthma. "Even if my legs are shaking at the end of the play because I can't do it any more, I'm going to be here until they throw me out. I'm not going to stop fighting, I'm not going to stop working" she says.
However, "strong people are also bad, we also lose heart, we also have difficult moments." And that's where the support network comes in, the team, because "there's always someone to give you a hand." As she speaks, Lorena Roncero holds her hand tightly. "Look at how the group has supported me! And when we've had to go somewhere, she (Lorena) comes with me, she doesn't leave me alone. And I'm really grateful for that", says Zira to Lorena. It's the first time they have worked together, but it seems like they have done it all their lives. The connection and affection between them is evident.
For this project, which she is working on with Zira Williams Producciones, she has surrounded herself with a "great team." Pilar Esteban 'La Pili', Eskarnia and Alessandra García provide the voice-over for the witches. The music of the play comes courtesy of Artesonao, featuring Miguel Olmedo. Miguel Almanza has made the "teaser." Elisa Postigo, the costumes. And Julián Navarro is her right-hand man in the production.
But on stage she is alone. And not of her own free will. "I would love to have someone else with me, two, three, four, or whoever. I would love to, but nowadays it's not so easy. Theatre is not valued as it should be. Although there are many people who support us, we sell what we do very cheaply. If you sell at too high a price, nobody hires you," she laments, highlighting the reality of small-scale theatre production. "It's that nowadays it's very difficult to start up a business, and even more so in our profession, and she has taken it upon herself with a courage that is to be admired," adds Lorena Roncero.
This is her second monologue and her second production (after her debut in 2021 with 'Manto'), "but this one is much more complicated." The text is for her the "biggest challenge", more than having to move blindly, measuring every step she takes. "Then you get on the stage and you forget something. But I don't think, oh, I'm three steps to the right, four steps to the left. No, it's not so much like that. It's about letting your intuition guide you" she explains.
For Lorena Roncero it is also a challenge and a "learning experience." "All the focus is on what she does, on what she says, on her emotion, on respecting the text as much as possible and on accompanying her so that she shines", she says. For her courage and talent, the theatre festival will present her with the Ángeles Rubio-Argüelles Award after the performance, which recognises the work of women on stage. "The day they told me, I couldn't believe it. What have I done? I thought they had made a mistake, but now I'm believing it a little. I'm happy, I'm excited. What a responsibility, but what a beautiful thing I'm going to experience," she concludes.
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