Comediants was born in 1972, a street theater that combined popular traditions with Mediterranean imagery. The company based in Canet de Mar has reached half a century of life with the satisfaction of having taken an innovative artistic journey, which has paved the way for a way of doing things that bears its own name. On the occasion of this round anniversary and the end of the stage, Joan Font (Olesa de Montserrat, 1949), the stage manager and one of its founders, has created a montage based on the book he wrote with Piti Español, Joan Font. The discovery of a new theatrical language The show is called El venedor de fum and, after its premiere at FiraTàrrega, it is now being presented at the Poliorama theater in Barcelona in a single performance, on March 5.
What do you think of the show?
The smoke vendor is one more of the 50th anniversary events, as is the commemorative book. Our headline was Straightening the Memory, because we’ve been a disaster in that regard. Those who have come behind, like La Fura dels Baus, handle information better and know how important it is. We, on the other hand, were more hippies, the important thing was the present, the direct, and the reflections will be done by someone else. From the book that comes out of the conversation with Piti Español, we decided to make a show to explain my life.
An artistic life of 50 years.
I think it’s cool because it’s a journey that starts with Franco in 1972 and now we’re in high technology. We have defended our own theater and that is why we have created our own language.
And with this language you acted everywhere.
Because we explain something that is real, that is at our roots, it makes us cross borders. The shows are images, music, sensations, emotions, surprise, magic, body expression, dance… and for 30 years we have not valued the text.
Export our tradition.
This is like when Pina Bausch came and we said: can this be done? Well, when we went to Berlin, they asked themselves: Can this be done and, moreover, go out on the street?
And you created a school.
Yes, there have been copies, in the good sense of the word, that use Comedians language: Mediterranean demons, goblins and fauna… The closing of Barcelona’92 was a traditional party, with demons and the fire, with the goblins who create the universe, and the paper boat toy…
Does it all come out in El vendero fum?
The show is this journey without many pretensions. It is very complicated to be able to make a common thread, because I would be there for four hours. I give talks and lectures at universities and drama schools, and at the end people applaud, as if it were a show.
Have you turned it around and now do a conference show?
It is like that, yes, with some element such as music, projections, masks or a jacket, so that a young dwarf, who has never seen us, gets to know it and ends up asking: can this be done? Well yes, because we have created this own language. Salvador Sunyer, director of Temporada Alta, wrote in an article about that first period, with La Fura, Carles Santos and us, and said: “They performed in Tokyo and the next day they did it in my town”. Or at any major party. This is the greatness of that theatrical moment: we performed in Avinyó, at the Venice Biennale, and in all the towns.
And the biggest party in the whole world.
When I tell adventures, there are those who ask me: “Tell me where you haven’t been, we’ll finish sooner”. When we first performed in Sydney, they had never seen a street theater or demon show. Between the Opera House and the Botanic Gardens with the ancient tree, we set up Australia’s first street show, uniting the most modern and the oldest. Now they have their street theater festival, which is very important.
How would you define this new language?
Very visual and surprising, on the tightrope between dream and reality, reality and unreality, wonder and roots, which has no limitations of space. We have performed on ships, on trains, like the AVE in Seville. Our art is looking for people, and that’s what’s great about it. From a very young age we went to schools, markets and clubs.
Why is there no continuity?
We had recruited young people, but it is a poisoned gift. And in 2008, with the crisis, everything went to waste because, since we act in the street, people don’t pay and the councils have to. Then, as our manager said, the most important thing became filling the fridge.
What would have been the solution?
I wish it had happened like in Canada with Cirque du Soleil, which has institutional support that we didn’t have here. A fantastic and necessary National Theater was made for classical theatre, but more national theaters should have been made for the other theaters with international projection, from Pep Bou and the Bubbles to all the others. The country stopped betting on a singular and own theater. We premiered the Sala Petita with T.E.M.P.U.S., and we’ve done a few operas at the Liceu, I mean I speak with ownership.
When will you put the end point?
With a creator as beast as me, it will cost a lot, because I have a lot of projects going on and a lot of people asking me for collaborations. But Comediants yes, because of the infrastructure that needs to be maintained. We are now taking a lot of material to the Performing Arts Museum.
