‘Miles Gloriosus’: The Mérida Film Festival faces its final stretch with one of the most classic comedies, ‘Miles Gloriosus’

The month of August at the International Festival of Classical Theater welcomes one of the most classic comedies of the Greco-Latin world, ‘Miles Gloriosus’, the famous play written by Plautus, directed in this adaptation by Pep Anton Gómez, will be in function from this Wednesday August 3 until next Sunday.

The comedy talks about the boastful military man, played by Carlos Sobera, who, although it is not his first time in the Extremaduran capital, has presented the Ceres awards up to five times. Yes, it is the first time that he has stepped onto the Roman Theater arena to perform a function within the Festival.

Sobera is accompanied by others with more experience on this stage, such as Ángel Pardo. Elisa Matilla, Elena Ballesteros, Juanjo Cucalón, David Tortosa, Antonio Prieto and Arianna Aragón, who has a double premiere, debuts as an actress and does so at the Festival, nothing more and nothing less.

It is the third time that Pep Antón Gómez directs in Mérida, he has very good memories of the previous ones, he commented. “Merida in summer is a great party at night.” For the adaptation Antón says that it has been necessary “to cut back and make the language more contemporary”.

Beyond the laughs, there will also be music “it’s not a musical, but you can’t come to Mérida without music”, declared the director.

Carlos Sobera has declared that the eternity of the classics is due to the fact that “they address the essence of the human being, everything literary drinks from the classics”, the actor has highlighted.

As for the work, co-produced by the Festival and Arequipa Producciones, producer of Sobera, he stressed that “perhaps something has changed in this performance and that is that the ending is not happy, because all Plautus endings are happy.”

The adaptation has been carried out by Antonio Prieto, who also has a role in the show. “Plauto’s comedy is the mother of all comedies and in the adaptation I wanted to respect the rhythm,” says Prieto.

The anecdotal note has been put by the actress Elisa Matilla who has revealed her phobia of riding a plane «Whenever I flew I thought, nothing can happen to me because I have not yet premiered in Mérida, after my time at the festival I will have to go to the psychologist» , has reported.

It is also the first time for Elena Ballesteros who has revealed that last year she asked to come to this theater “and finally my dream has come true.”

It is not the first time for David Tortosa, the actor was already a few years ago with ‘Aquiles el hombre’ and hopes that “returning to this stage after the break due to the pandemic will be like resurfacing again”.

The Ministry of Culture, Miriam García Cabezas, has also been at the presentation of the work, commenting that “theatre is going from comedy to tragedy and from music to drama.” She has highlighted how difficult it is to make the public laugh in Mérida and has echoed the new adaptation of Miles Gloriosus referring to the adaptations as “a new, more up-to-date look”.

For her part, the Councilor for Culture, Silvia Fernández, has pointed out that none of Plautus’s texts have lost their validity today and has invited the public to spend a pleasant time with this work.

Finally, the director of the Festival, Jesús Cimarro, commented that this is the third time that this comedy has been performed in Mérida, it was already done in 1989, 2008 and now it will be staged again with «a wonderful cast and great actors and actresses of the Spanish scene. The director has commented that with this work fun “is guaranteed and that there are hardly any tickets left for the five nights of performance that lie ahead.” So he has invited everyone to buy tickets before they are sold out.