Written and performed by Marina Cusí
3am. A knock on the door. Everyone holds their breath inside their sleeping bag, crammed in this boiling hot polling station.
Just hours away from the referendum for Catalan independence, deemed illegal by the Spanish government, two young anti-fascist activists hold hands in the dark, waiting for the Spanish police to arrive at any minute…
‘ – ¡Vamos a quemar esto con todos vosotros dentro!’
Did you hear that? Just a friendly cop nudging them to wake up…
This award-winning one-woman-show explores how translation and subtitles can be used to manipulate monolingual communities through the media, especially when creating the hegemonic narrative surrounding foreign affairs in non-English-speaking countries.
Performed fully in Catalan, with English captions, the show follows two young anti-fascist activists during the referendum for Catalan independence on the 1st of October 2017, which was deemed as illegal by the Spanish government, who deployed its military corps to stop the voting from happening all throughout Catalonia.
Mad, Who? is an emerging multicultural theatre company that creates multilingual captioned work focusing on human rights issues explored through a feminist lens. The company, created by Catalan multidisciplinary artist Marina Cusí in 2022 with the support of the University of Essex’s Innovation Centre and start-ups team, premiered its first show, The ’S’ Is Silent in April 2023 at The Pleasance Theatre in London, and won the FesTeLoFF 2022 Audience Award for said production at FesTeLõn Festival’s 10th edition. Mad, Who? was an OFFIES Awards 2024 finalist on their Best Online Production Category for the livestream of The ‘S’ Is Silent at The Space Theatre, and an OffFest Award finalist at the OFFIES 2025. Sub Titles Over was awarded the ‘GJD Reviews Award’ at the Colchester Fringe 2024.
Watch Marina in conversation with Essex PhD candidate, playwright, and aspiring clown, Alice K. Stephens, to discuss Sub Titles Over and how her time at Essex has helped her become the theatre-maker she is today.
Find out more about Marina’s journey from University of Essex Drama student to award-winning theatre maker in this feature on the University of Essex website.
