From the 31st to the 9th of November Barcelona is flooded with over 300 shows and live performances of artists from all over the world. It’s Barcelona Fringe Festival, which offers a variety of live performances in a vast array of genres: from stand-up comedy to improvisation, from physical theatre to clowning. The shows are mostly in English and Spanish but the spectator can also see works in Catalan, French, Italian, Hinglish, and Russian. A kaleidoscope of performances that truly reflect the character of the Catalan city, famous for its openness towards everything which is new and innovative.
American theatre artist Monica Hunken is here with her show Mount Rushmore, performing at the BCN studio on November 1st and 4th. The show is a really engaging piece of work, splendidly performed and written. I took 5 minutes of her time to share with us some stories about the show, her life and her work in general. If you are around Barcelona you can watch the show on the 4th of November at BCN studio (here’s the link on the Barcelona Fringe website) You can read my review of the show, on European Comedy https://europeancomedy.com/, or my substack https://tomcorradini.substack.com/
MOUNT RUSHMORE – INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (1st November, 2025)
Show: Mount Rushmore
Interviewer: Tom Corradini
Interviewee: Monica Hunken
Location: The BCN Studio, Barcelona Fringe Festival
TOM CORRADINI: Hello there. I’m Tom Corradini for FringeReview UK and today we are at the Barcelona Fringe Festival. Just saw a fantastic show which is Mount Rushmore by and with Monica Dudárov Hunken and I hope the name is right. But anyway, I just spoke too much and yeah, just tell us about the show. Monica, you come all the way from New York, first of all, although your name doesn’t sound like American at all.
MONICA HUNKEN: Yes. Well, my family is Polish, but thank you for meeting with me. So, the show is Mount Rushmore, and it’s like an autobiographical show, but there’s part fantasy because I travel back in time to change my mom’s life for her. And with the audience, we manifest a friend, sort of like a rebellious friend to help my mom go down a different path for her life. And there’s live music and it’s a fantastical adventure journey.
TOM CORRADINI: Okay, we will not give away the story but anyway it’s a very interesting show which has got like a bit of physical theater, a bit of music, very interesting dramaturgy if I must say and it’s partly based on your real life so to speak. But yeah tell me just a bit about yourself. You have Polish ancestry or Russian, whatever it is.
MONICA HUNKEN: I’m from California originally and then I moved to New York for school and I have multiple solo shows. I have five, I think, and this is the latest one that—this one I’ve been developing and changing the most because most of my shows are all autobiographical and this is one with a lot of fantasy in it. And so I wanted to start branching out and it’s a way for me to reckon with rising fascism in the US. I’m an activist too. I’m a direct action trainer. I teach people how to deal with police, how to climb things, how to de-escalate situations and things like this. So the show keeps being relevant and keeps changing for me as things change and escalate in the States. And so I’m just trying to figure it out.
TOM CORRADINI: We could classify this as political theater as well, but at the same time, from the technical point of view, it really has a lot of interesting facets. The way you change your characters as you go from one character to the other; the way you move; the way; the blocking on the stage. Everything is really interesting . I went to your website and you got lots of experience on that. You also hold workshops. So, if you can just comment on the technical side rather than the story. What’s your training?
MONICA HUNKEN: Well, as you mentioned, I have a Polish background. So, I studied Grotowski work. I went to NYU and went to the experimental theater wing. I studied with Stephen Wangh and R. Goldberg and studied in Poland, too. And I have been teaching workshops partly inspired by Grotowski work, but also from my own like solo theater development work all around the world. I travel a lot to the Middle East and through Europe. I do long bike rides. I’ve biked across like maybe 25 countries and sometimes I’ll just tour my shows on bicycle with everything I need on them and teach workshops and yeah I’ve had a very strange and great life.
TOM CORRADINI: It’s a wide life. So we cannot of course make our life longer but we can make it wider. You have made it wider and yeah so just go check out your website. What’s your website again?
MONICA HUNKEN: It’s just my name monicahunken.com.
TOM CORRADINI: And just last but not least, you got a partner with you. So I think kudos to the partner because he’s the guy doing the music and also he’s very well integrated into the show, I must say. So it’s kind of an invisible presence, but I would say organic presence in the show. If you want to say something about him?
MONICA HUNKEN: Yeah. His name is Phil Andrews and we have a band back in the States. He’s the leader of the band. It’s Funkrust Brass Band. So, it’s a big post-apocalyptic marching band and then he was the music director, musical director for this show. So, we’ve collaborated on it and there have been other musicians that we’ve had—a full band for this show before. I’ve done the show with no musicians before. I’ve done lots of different iterations, but it’s great to have him here too.
TOM CORRADINI: Last question before we finish. You’re here in Barcelona, Europe, and you come from New York, all the way from New York. What’s the theater scene over there?We know about Broadway, all the big stuff. What about the so-called off theater, theater which is not maybe, you know, spectacular but still maybe story-wise is very interesting. I mean what is it like?
MONICA HUNKEN: Yeah, there’s so much. It’s overwhelming how much theater but your question is good because what I really love to go watch is like queer theater, like drag shows, cabaret shows. I feel like the experimental shows, the things happening in bars, in clubs are what is really really interesting and taking a lot of creative risks and without huge commercial backing and corporate influence. So, it’s really wild.
TOM CORRADINI: Okay. Thank you very much. And just reminding everybody who’s listening to this that you’re on again on the 4th of November.
MONICA HUNKEN: That’s right. Yes. On November 4th at BCN Studio at 22, which is 10 p.m. for those of you also from the States.
TOM CORRADINI: All right. Thank you very much. That was Monica and I’m Tom Corradini for Fringe Review and come to see the show. It really is worth it.
MONICA HUNKEN: Thank you. I really appreciate it.
