Carme Portaceli began the presentation of the TNC season 23-24 yesterday by referring to the philosopher Emilio Lledó, who reminds us that humanity continues to ask itself the same questions as Plato.
That is why the director of the National Theater of Catalonia announced that the new season, the third in which she is at the head of the institution, will be dedicated to memory, to reflect on issues such as “living together, thinking, how to link the ideas to reality, feeling, what love is, how language can express the truth, whether education can improve people, which we already know it does, and whether the word happiness makes sense”.
The director of the TNC believes that the stories are very important: “They have told us the Civil War as a war between brothers, and they have not told us that it was a test of fascism and that it turned out well for them. From the theater we must have our responsibility as artists, so that these stories have rigor and meaning. Sometimes the big story forgets the small stories, which are the ones that make sense. Hearing these stories will also make us more tolerant.” And he added: “Lledó says that the lack of memory is a moral crime and a historical crime”.
The inauguration will have Rodoreda in the Great Hall and a repicó in the Workshops. On September 28, the curtain will rise with La plaça del Diamant in a version by Ferran Dordal and Carlota Subirós, who will also direct it. The work will premiere at El Grec and is TNC’s bet to tour both Catalan-speaking territories and Europe, thanks to the agreements it has with European theatres.
The following day, in the Sala Tallers, it is Cabosanroque who brings the installation Flors i viatages, inspired by the Rodoredian short stories of Viatges i flores and texts by the Belarusian author Svetlana Aleksiévich, who has already been seen in Temporada Alta. Rodoreda’s words are spoken in Ukrainian by women who have been forced to flee their country’s war.
Portaceli will direct a text by Almudena Grandes, which the Madrid writer passed on to him before she died. This is La madre de Frankenstein, the adaptation of the fifth novel of the Episodios de una guerra interminable, which is set in the fifties, in full Francoism. Co-produced with the Centro Dramático Nacional, it will premiere in Madrid in September and arrive in Barcelona in November, with Blanca Portillo, Pablo Derqui and seven other performers.
The Great Hall of the TNC will also host The Watsons in February, which Laura Wade has completed from an unfinished text by Jane Austen. Josep Maria Mestres will direct 18 characters, “a luxury that the TNC can afford thanks to the increase in the budget on the part of the Generalitat, which promised it and has done it”, declared Portaceli. In April, coinciding with the Dance Fortnight, MarÃa Pagés will dance alone the flamenco choreography ParaÃso de los negros, where the blacks refer to those who do not write their history.
Jordi Prat i Coll signs the dramaturgy and direction of Els criminalas, by Ferdinand Bruckner, which has one of the most popular casts, with LluÃs Soler, Maria RodrÃguez, Laura Conejero and Joan Carreras, among others. And Peeping Tom are back, who have starred in one of the biggest hits of this season. His new proposal is S62°58′, W60°39′, the coordinates of the island of Deception, in Antarctica.
There is no lack of collaborations with the theaters of the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands, and with artists from France and Lebanon. In the other rooms, you can see La filla de l’est, by Clara Usón; De Nau Albet and Marcel Borrà s, from the actors of the same name; Extinction, from Agrupación Señor Serrano; Amnesia, by Nelson Valente; Andorra, by Max Frisch; Thanatology, by Xavier Uriz; Camping, Pont Flotant; Short interviews with exceptional women, by Joan Yago; and Other forms, by Miquel Àngel Raió.
The TNC ends the season with 76% occupancy, with the record number of season tickets in its history (5,634) and 108,634 spectators, “and the season is not over yet”, concludes Portaceli.
