The actor Pepe Viyuela has decided to abandon ‘Jardiel in love’, the play in which he plays the writer Enrique Jardiel Poncela and directed by Ramón Paso, after the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office filed a complaint this week against the director for alleged sexual crimes that he would have committed against several women between 2018 and 2023.
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“I was shocked. I am nervous. I do not think in another thing. “I am shocked,” Viyuela explained in statements to Europa Press shortly after learning that the Public Ministry has directed the complaint to the Dean of Courts of Madrid after having completed some pre-procedural proceedings in which he took statements from 14 victims – aged between 18 and 25 years old – who confirmed their complaint at the tax office.
Pepe Viyuela, who until now starred at the Infanta Isabel Theater in Madrid in the play written and directed by Ramón Paso, has assured that he has not spoken with the playwright. “I don’t want to call him. I don’t want to continue with the show. “I’m leaving,” he stressed, later clarifying that Paso is not his friend.
After the actor’s announcement, the theater and the production companies held an emergency meeting and issued a statement ensuring that they were completely unaware of the facts and expressed themselves “absolutely surprised and dismayed” since they learned the news. They have expressed their solidarity with the victims and assume “the responsibility we have as exhibitors, producers, performers, cultural workers to contribute in this way to raising awareness and stopping this scourge, as well as creating a safe space in theater”.
For this reason, they have decided, by mutual agreement, to “definitively suspend the exhibition of the work.” “We want to emphasize that the events do not concern this production, nor of course have they occurred at any time during the production process, nor in the Theater. “We condemn any attitude of abuse of power, and therefore any type of sexual violence against women in the Performing Arts, and evidently in society,” they say in the statement in which they also announce that they are committed to finding a new role for “ correct the serious damage also caused to the Theater and try to ‘cover’ the hole” that “this unfortunate situation” leaves them with.
“Ramón has to clarify many things”
In the middle of rehearsal, the actor assured that he understands “the presumption of innocence, but there is something too strong about the subject,” which is that it involves the complaints of 14 women. “I stand on the side of the alleged victims,” said the actor, who has made it clear that he feels incapable of “distrusting the testimony of 14 people.” “There has to be something. I don’t think there is a plot or that they want to kill him,” he insisted.
Hours before the announcement by the Theater and the production companies about the cancellation of the play, the actor, who had a leading role, assured that he would not appear on stage. “I don’t have the guts to go on stage this afternoon,” he lamented. “Ramón has to clarify many things,” he added. Sources close to the playwright, screenwriter and stage director have informed Europa Press that he “is meeting with his legal advisors,” following the complaint from the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
The Prosecutor’s complaint
The Prosecutor’s Office includes in its complaint alleged crimes of sexual assault – in some cases in its continuous form – as well as crimes of sexual harassment and harassment, against moral integrity and coercion.
The lawyer specifies that most of the complainants, but not all, were victims of actions that would fall within the spectrum included in the Penal Code – after the reform of what is known as the ‘yes means yes law’ – for sexual assaults.
The sources consulted on the case advise that, at the moment, the matter is pending distribution in the Madrid Courts. Once the investigating judge is appointed, he will be the one to determine whether or not to admit the brief of the Public Prosecutor’s Office against the grandson of the playwright Alfonso Paso and great-grandson of the writer Enrique Jardiel Poncela.
Castings between 2018 and 2023
The reported events would have occurred between 2018 and 2023, always related to the theatrical activity of Paso, the sources consulted point out. According to these sources, the conduct reported by the Public Prosecutor’s Office would have taken place within the framework of castings in which the playwright and the alleged victims participated.
It was the lawyer Luisa Estévez Martínez who brought the facts to the attention of the Madrid Prosecutor’s Office last year. The Public Ministry took a statement from the lawyer as a witness and then collected the testimonies of 14 women who ratified the complaint, the sources of the case add.
According to the lawyer, the Prosecutor’s Office, in addition to taking statements, has received documentary evidence related to the reported events, as well as expert reports from parties that would corroborate the women’s version and psychological reports.
On April 10, the Public Ministry decreed the conclusion of its pre-procedural proceedings and agreed to file a complaint before the Madrid Courts, an event that took place this Tuesday.