I open your WhatsApp and I find a message without previous greetings: “The art of being free to exist”, a text accompanied by a collage of asymmetric stripes of fluorine colors with his white face divided into two: half human, half Roman bust in stone in the center with a green eye and another blue. And since I do not answer at the moment …
-¿Johny?
That’s how it called me, other friends and himself. I think it’s a good definition to show what Eusebio I was like, The indomitable. The art of being free to exist, that art he handled it undoubtedly his whole life. There, we opened an endless philosophical debate of how to preserve freedom in this devouring industry and the futile art of feeding.
I remember that I had to replace a character of This is not Bernarda Alba’s house on the edge In the Arriaga Theater in Bilbao, and before leaving between racks, he took my arm and whispered: “Get out there, and lúcete, lúcete!”
It was a star of seduction. “You always have to seduce, since you get out of bed. To the driver, the waiter, the head of the room, the director … until you lie down,” he said. He was natural, without prefabricating, and that is why he endured a foreground like nobody, loaded with mystery, ambiguity and, at the same time, certainty and depth.
In the essays I have the habit, not always welcomed by the actors because it is a situation of high vulnerability, to invite students as listeners. Eusebio did not make an objection but sometimes he approached some of them and incredible: “And who are you?”. And the poor student, before his idol, said on bass and choppy: “I have already come several days and Carlota has presented us …”. And he replied: “Don’t shout me, huh!” And without smile through it turned around. It was a kind of exam: he preferred to be jumping to the jugular without regard than the hesitation. One of the reasons, I think, for which I appreciated me.
He certainly liked playing, and almost always put a goal. A humor that was not always well read and that, particularly, was very funny. It was loved and much. He did and said what he wanted, but he hated the faults of professionalism, and he set an example of punctuality, commitment and discipline. He demanded and squeezed you to grow and grow. But if I didn’t want … I didn’t want to.
He was a landscape lover, to travel. Although he ate little, he loved to know restaurants and almost always asked for croquettes. He loved reading, going to the theater. He was very independent, but he liked being with artists, talking and provoking. I knew how to listen and read between lines with extreme sensitivity. It was very generous.
I keep its magnetic attractiveness, with your support without expecting anything in return, its energy, its vitality, its strength, its charisma, with the endless laughs, with its teachings. And I thank you for having lived. Rest in peace; Here you leave your eternal gaze and your deep voice.
Carlota Ferrer She is stage director and actress. With Eusebio Poncela he worked in works such as ‘The kiss of the spider woman’ (2022) y ‘This is not Bernarda Alba’s house ‘(2017).