Imperfect Couples: Performance Review & Human Fragility

Toni Cantó, Mirela Balić, Lola Baldrich and Marcos Mayo offered solid performances full of nuances, supported by a careful set design

Theater, on many occasions, places us in front of an uncomfortable but necessary mirror. That is precisely what ‘Imperfect Couples’ achieved last night at the Maestro Padilla Auditorium: to challenge the viewer on such universal issues as dependency, loneliness or the fragility of the human being. He also did so through an elegant and symbolic staging, with a rotating wall that acted as a narrative and scenographic axis, transforming into the different rooms that the characters inhabited. Added to this were four solid and deeply human performances. Toni Cantó, Mirela Balić, Lola Baldrich and Marcos Mayo built credible characters, full of nuances, capable of honestly transmitting their doubts, contradictions and desires.

Directed by Bernabé Rico, the play – text by playwright Martyna Majok, 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Theater for ‘Cost of Living’ – presents an intimate portrait of four lives that intersect during a period of four months. Far from being pigeonholed into a single genre, the proposal moved between drama and comedy naturally, offering a stage experience that is, in the director’s own words, “a song for integration and the need for human connection.”

On stage, Toni Cantó stands out for her restraint and depth, creating a character that moves between vulnerability and emotional resistance. His work is supported by eloquent silences and looks that say as much as the text. His partner in the scene – his ex-wife, who has suffered an accident that caused tetraplegia -, Lola Baldrich offers a mature and nuanced performance, building a complex character that accurately embodies the contradictions of affection and dependence. His stage presence adds dramatic weight and balance to the ensemble.

For her part, Mirela Balić brings freshness and a contemporary sensitivity, giving her role an energy that balances fragility and determination, connecting with the audience from generational closeness. Finally, Marcos Mayo completes the quartet with an honest and natural performance, capable of sustaining the most intimate moments with a scenic truth that reinforces the credibility of the story, and providing a very fine touch of humor. In this case, the story focuses on the relationship between a dependent person and their caregiver.

The assembly is supported by a careful technical team that contributes decisively to the final result. The set design, signed by Leticia Gañán and Curt Allen Wilmer (AAPEE), stands out for its functionality and symbolism, while the costumes by Pier Paolo Álvaro (AAPEE) precisely define the identity of each character. José Manuel Guerra’s lighting subtly accompanies the emotional changes, creating atmospheres that reinforce the story. The team is completed by Lucía Cerván as assistant director, Sergio Parra in photography and Marisa Pino as production director, in a production promoted by Triple F, Olympia Metropolitana and Niki Nakle Chonakle, with distribution by TalyCual.

‘Imperfect Couples’ does not seek easy answers or complacent endings. Its value lies precisely in its ability to show imperfection as an inherent trait of the human being, inviting the viewer to recognize themselves in those cracks. The performance last night, Saturday, in Almería closed with a standing ovation that confirmed the connection achieved between stage and stalls.

Because, when theater reaches this level of truth and emotion, it stops being just representation and becomes an act of encounter. And it is there, in that space shared between actors and audience, where the love for theater continues to beat.