There remains practically no vestige of the “furious and authentic fair” which roamed the towns and villages of the 20th century. This is how the puppeteer Pepe Luna describes them, who remembers very well the raffles, the bumper cars and the merry-go-round that he rode with enthusiasm. … childish. The same one that he still maintains today, with decades of travel behind him, when talking about his Automates Theater, born, precisely, from the courage of the hands of a fairground merchant.
In Matadero, Luna and Paz González put the finishing touches on the lighting, decor and mechanics of their barracks, which, although it was mobile decades ago, remains established in Madrid today. Created in 1947 by Antonio Plá, this theater is the only one in the world who remains alive. Other automatons benefit from their lethargy scattered among museums and collectors.
To the sound of a Cuban band, the characters gesticulate with an air of comedy. A woman, “The Old Girl”, tries to kill a mouse with a broom, while in reverse, the magician Merlin makes a star disappear. There are twelve scenarios with a total of 35 “fighting machines” that have accompanied Luna and Paz on their journey for decades. It was Gonzalo Cañas who started them. Puppeteer, actor and theater director, he fell in love with these actors while his show was still called “Hollywood”. “It was love at first sight,” say those who know them. At that time they belonged to another fair trader, José María Simón, who insisted for years trying to buy them.
He achieved it a long time later. He took the mechanical devices out of the fair and gave them the space that his theatrical training dictated was correct, transforming them into actors who toured theater festivals throughout Europe, enchanting those who entered the booth with their mysticism. They traveled the roads until reaching destinations like Poland, Denmark, Germany or Budapest. “They loved them a lot,” Paz says. She and Luna accompanied Cañas on these trips. He met the first behind the scenes and with the second he joined the profession of puppeteer. “When he explained it to us, we didn’t understand it until we saw it. You don’t understand until you see them,” Paz confesses.
Cañas said goodbye to his characters and to the world in 2012, leaving his legacy in the Madrid City Hall and in the care of his two friends, who have come a long way to bring this little showbiz of levers, seesaws and springs out of oblivion. Thanks to four days of assembly work, Madrid residents can see it in operation as it would have been at the time of its creation. Each time the truck moves, they must check the cables for avoid continued imbalances this causes walking on wheels. “It’s a very specialized profession, not everyone knows the machines and, above all, what is the process to undress and dress them without damaging them. “They are museum pieces,” Luna explains. They learned by doing and are now looking for someone to train to continue their legacy. They will nevertheless continue to practice their profession “as long as the body holds up”.
“When he explained it to us, we didn’t understand it until we saw it. “You don’t understand until you see them,” says Paz González.
After its purchase by Cañas, “a process of restoration and repair begins.” He wanted to offer a spectacle like those he experienced in the theater, transferring the stage to these beings who were as inert as they were mobile. It was then that the poet Juan Carlos Mestre awarded the National Poetry Prize in 2009brings the entrance to life through his paintings. Poet and puppeteer intertwine their arts to give the audience the fantasy they saw in their project, and the theater coverage was filled with colors, faces, dreams and frenzy. In addition, above the scenes, comic quatrains that both of them wrote enhance the literary stroll. “The lady on the sofa dreams of inappropriate loves, forgetting that she is a mother, a libertine! cries the parrot”, reads one of them, entitled “The Romantic”. A little further up, you can see three-dimensional dioramas painted by the artist Luis Pita and representing monuments from different Spanish cities.
Pepe Luna and Paz González know perfectly not only the anatomy of the characters but also the internal structure of the machine, which, by Cañas’ decision, was left uncovered. The same mechanism is preserved from the start, powered by an electric motor, and if an element fails and it is not possible to replace it with a current element, all that remains is to manufacture it. “The transmission is a central axis, everything is transmitted via leather belts,” they explain. Years ago, the Polytechnic University carried out a study to check if the system could be modernized, but it was decided to keep the original machine so as not to distort the work of the craftsmen.
A legacy inherited from the town hall
The legacy of Gonzalo Cañas’s barracks to Madrid City Hall was approved in 2014, two years after his death. The theater was shut down until 2018, when restoration and development work began by a technical fine arts team, responsible for cleaning the machines, and a company which took care of the technical part. That year, under the mayorship of Manuela Carmena, it was exhibited in Conde Duque.
After this exhibition, its activity stopped again until 2022. Until then, it remained stored in a dock of the Circo Price, where a cultural team from the town hall found it and decided to put it into service on fixed dates, as San Isidro or Christmas. “We want this Christmas in Madrid to be an opportunity to be surprised and let your imagination carry you away. The Automates Theater invites you to stop, look in wonder and share a unique experience, designed for all audiences and above all to enjoy with the family”, says Marta Rivera de la Cruz, delegate of the Culture, Tourism and Sports Area of Madrid City Hall.
Pepe Luna repairing the functioning of the mechanism
Luna and Paz did not stop their efforts, during the years when it was not in service, to recover it. “We ran campaigns, we spoke with all theater professionals about puppets. We never stopped, we kept pushing,” they say. The next step, they say, is “look for a stable space, a human team “Let him continue to wear it.” They have been assured that when the right place is found, a team will be created to replace their generation.
They say they are satisfied that the theater now belongs to the people of Madrid. “It is a popular theater and now it belongs to the people, to the property of the people of Madrid, and it must be protected, pampered, cared for and exhibited in appropriate conditions,” says Pepe. Over the years they have been showing their magic to the capital, many older people are said to remember seeing it at the fairs of their youth. “They see that it has changed, but they recognize it. Then we have fans who come every year,” Paz says with a smile.
For years, Pepe and Paz insisted on recovering the Automata Theater
If they profess affection for their audience, even more so for their characters. For them, every scene is special and equally careful. “They get mad at me if I say I have a favorite,” Luna said with some sarcasm. “These are all our children,” Paz says. They ask all those who give their world the chance to travel through it, lulled by the rhythm of past eras and with the pauses of an actor who takes to a new stage, of a poet who weaves verses with a feather or of a puppeteer who tries not to frighten the little ones.
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