Agnés Mateus and Quim Tarrida: A lot of labels have been used to define Rebota Rebota y en tu cara explota: new trends, living art, alternative theatre… What we really do is theatre: contemporary theatre, theatre as we’d like to see it: vital, full of energy, leaving its mark. It’s like going to a concert. Even if you’re seeing a group for the third time, it's still an experience. Music lives and stays in you long after.

Theatre in general speaks to the mind. With music, we go straight for the belly. We use subwoofers - we don't like to explain everything, but we can talk about that. Subwoofers generate sounds that resonate right in the belly. And for us, theatre should pass through there, through the gut, through the emotions. We want to wake the audience up with noise, music, dance, subliminal sounds, action, movement. Music and humour are special ways of communicating.

Sometimes, even if we’re aware that something is wrong, we don’t act. And in spite of what you might think, politicians aren’t doing anything to combat domestic violence. This is why we take to the stage: to change the audience, to raise awareness. We try to make something change in the spectator. If that hasn’t happened after they’ve watched our show, then we haven’t done our job properly. For us, it’s important to upset the audience. To let them know that there’s something that isn’t working in each of us, both male and female. But our intention isn’t just to stay at the simple observation that ‘the world is awful’. On the contrary, we want the audience to come out of the room filled with strength, with strength for women, strength for men. Because men need to take a big step forward. We women have been working for a long time to change mindsets, but men are just as involved. We want to send a message: ‘Be strong and act!’ And this isn’t a negative message but a very positive one.

The impact is difficult to assess, even if we do have feedback from women audience members who tell us that after watching the show they feel able to act in a violent situation. Women write to tell us that they’re braver, more prepared to respond to these men on the street, that they feel stronger to act. Men, although they might think they’re very modern, very understanding, feel challenged and are led to question themselves.

We believe, in all modesty, that this show exists to make people act. Using humour, cynicism, irony, laughter, we open the audience’s mind and their gut so they can not only understand but also live the show intensely.

- Interview by Benoît Henken on November 9, 2019