The Margarida Xirgu square will be one of the reference spaces for the Grec 2023 family shows. In collaboration with festivals such as the Flic or Petits Camaleons, the Montjuïc square will host from June 28 to July 22 a dozen activities, which include shows, concerts and workshops.
Do you want to know how the sheep feel in the flock? Well, they will be able to experience it firsthand in the Ramat Simfònic show, by Moon Ribas and Quim Girón. “We invite the public to graze,” explains Girón. “We started by observing the herd instinct and we have documented ourselves on transhumance. We have worked with a pastor from Vallès, Alfons García Valverde. The public carries speakers as if they were cowbells. (Xirgu, 6-8/VII)
Farrés Brothers explore the atrocities that have been committed over the centuries in HoHiHu. L’horrible historia de la humanitat, directed by Marta Sitjà. “We start from a book that talks about the atrocities of world history, where patriarchy dominates,” explains Pep Farrés. The image of two men fighting and a woman in the middle was repeated. As we believe that everything can be explained to children, here we work at a site and we go through different civilizations based on the objects, always hostile, that we find”. (Xirgu, 13-15/VII)
In other places in the city, such as the Sant Andreu Teatre, family shows are also offered. Engruna Teatre presents Dins el cor del món, based on the novel by Sabrina Berman. “It is the story of an autistic girl who is raised in a wild way,” says Mireia Fernández. We are dramatic, but Karen’s character has a great sense of humor.” (SAT, 12-13/VII)
Marta Almirall directs Jo soc d’aquí, from Roseland Musical, which is “a combination of many types of dances,” she explains. “We’ve been working eleven months, and she’s been crazy. I wanted it to be a show that breathed youthful art, and I’ve left them quite a bit to do theirs. The plot takes place in a block in the Eixample: they are neighbors who don’t know each other, and they meet and interrelate. I wanted the music to be the buzz of Barcelona, ??and the Jokko Collective, which has gone through Sónar, has created it”. (SAT, 19-20/VII)
Also in Sant Andreu, Leandro Mendoza presents Vetus venustas, a circus show with young and veteran artists, such as a 78-year-old trapeze artist, who reflect on the circus and ageism. “It is a documentary circus, where the artists explain their professional life, like when one of them worked with Ángel Cristo,” says Mendoza. They also talk about the problems of young artists, such as motherhood. I try to make a humanist circus”. (SAT, 5-6/VII)
Other shows that were presented yesterday and that have the circus as their central axis are Lady panda, with the Companyia Clara Poch Masià, who describes it like this: “Two girls on stage and a pendulum that marks the show, which revolves around the concepts of the suspension, the neutral point and the turn, the vital turns”. (Marcat de les Flors, 10-12/VII).
Bet Miralta and Jordi Aspa, from Escarlata, distill in La grutesca “what happens with laughter, that versatile tool; we reflect on laughter, but we don’t pretend to laugh.” (Flower Market, 20-21/VII). And Joan Català proposes a dialogue between the public and the subject in Idiòphone. (Miró Foundation, 22-23/VII).
Catalan version, here
