Boadella will direct Joglars again with a play about the emeritus king

Albert Boadella will once again direct Joglars, the company he founded in 1962 with Carlota Soldevila and Anton Font. On the verge of turning 80, the controversial director, playwright and theater actor will return to the front of the historic company “to direct the next work”, declares Ramon Fontserè, the actor who has directed Joglars since the departure of Boadella ten years ago and who now presents ¡Let Aristophanes come out! in the Apolo theater in Barcelona.

The central character of the next work will be the emeritus king and, although the public might think of a satire in the purest style of the company, on this occasion they opt for a “Shakespearean work”. Fontserè considers that the life of Juan Carlos I has enough elements to assemble a piece with all the necessary ingredients.

“Since he was a child under Franco’s guardianship and the incident with his brother, until the coup d’état saved in extremis, his fondness for ladies, his fondness for money, exile, now he has had another daughter…, the emeritus gives a lot of play ”, Fontserè explains to La Vanguardia.

The actor confesses that he wants to take a break: “In the next play it will be good for me to play solo and have Boadella direct it. But it’s something specific, just this once”, emphasizes Fontserè, who along with Pilar Sáenz and Dolors Tuneu are the company’s current partners.

But before Boadella’s punctual return to the front of the company, Joglars returns to Barcelona with ¡Que salga Aristófanes!, an approach to its origins as a formation with the central figure of the Greek comedian who is considered the father of comedy. The work is a denunciation of the infantilization of the world and a defense of freedom of expression. Ramon Fontserè directs and stars in this piece, which features five other performers: Pilar Sáenz, Dolors Tuneu, Xevi Vilà, Alberto Castrillo-Ferrer and Angelo Crotti. With this work, Joglars celebrates its 60 years of history.

Let Aristophanes out! is the story of a professor of classics, victim of escraches, who is dismissed and admitted to a Center for Psychocultural Re-education due to the mental sequelae produced by the dismissal. His knowledge of and admiration for the classical world makes him assume at times the character of Aristophanes, a model of freedom in the face of a society increasingly full of untouchable taboos.

“The work is a consequence of this puritanism that has come from the United States,” Fontserè refers to in the Barcelona presentation to the media. “The play premiered in January 2022, and after Barcelona we still have a few gigs and we will open the Almada Festival, in Portugal.”

Dolors Tuneu declares: “Aristophanes has been our reference. Through him the history of Greece is known and with ours the history of our country can be known. We want to launch a hymn to artistic freedom, because everything is a minefield where you have to watch your step very carefully. Censorship and above all self-censorship limit freedom. We claim freedom of expression and the defense of those who think differently from you. And humor helps break down certain ideas.”

The three current partners of Joglars remark that in these 60 years they have not stopped and are “the oldest private company”. During this time, “there have been moments of all kinds, such as the demonstrations against Teledeum –recalls Fontserè–. Jaume Collell was stabbed in Madrid and we had to stop the show”.

Among the celebrations of these six decades, Joglars has devised a project for La Cúpula de Pruit, his place of work and rehearsals, “to carry out residency projects and musical groups.” Fontserè remembers that Santi Arisa, among others, had rehearsed there. “It was built in 1977 and the first show that came out of there was La torna”.

Sáenz points out: “We rehearse there for four months every two years. It’s about fitting this in with the other projects.” But the story continues, because, as Fontserè admits: “I have not lost the desire to play and I like this life of doing theater and going on tour”.

The director also had words of admiration for the work of the La Calòrica company, whose piece Els ocells is also inspired by Aristophanes: “We need time to prepare our productions, that’s why I admire La Calòrica, who works fast and they are geniuses ”.

Let Aristophanes come out! is a production by Els Joglars co-produced with the Community of Madrid (Teatros del Canal) and the Generalitat de Catalunya, and can be seen at the Apolo del Paral·lel theater in Barcelona from May 3 to 7.