The Coordinator of Performing Arts Fairs of Spain (Cofae) waited at the inauguration yesterday of FiraTàrrega to deliver to Comedians the honorable mention it has awarded this year, “for their work as pioneers and founders of the first performing arts fair of the State, creating the Theater Fair in Carrer de Tàrrega in 1981”.
The act was held in the homonymous square, the Comediants square, which the city of Tàrrega dedicated to the mythical company. Until Sunday, the capital of Urgell will present 62 shows, half of which are premieres, with some outside the program, which respond to the motto of this edition: The unexpected.
As you can see that the city of Tàrrega is not big enough, a couple of shows that could be seen yesterday were held outside the walls. One was the first passes of the original proposal made by Artistas Sausages, Talking with the plants to reach a landscape. On a bicycle and equipped with headphones, the spectators tour the surroundings of Tàrrega. The bike ride covers four kilometers and is an immersive piece where viewers interact with the landscape and nature between Figuerosa and Altet, two towns added to Tàrrega.
According to Maria Camila Sanjinés and Manel Quintana, the souls of the Catalan company, it is an “intimate and personal” show where the spectator pedals and listens to the conversation of a couple of actors, available in different languages, and finds scenes along the route. The work is a new adaptation that the company premiered at Sismògraf 2017 and has worked in situ in recent months, exploring the surroundings of Tàrrega, within the framework of the support program for the creation of the Fira.
The other show, also part of this programme, takes spectators by coach to Mas de Colom, today Casa Borges, an old Cistercian abbey. There, the public finds some decorated tables, abandoned with half-full glasses and pieces of cake that the guests have left protruding in a hurry. The four performers of the Col·lectiu Desasosiego welcome the public like rain in May because they have been waiting for the guests to return for a long time.
A second under the sand immerses the audience in Lorca’s Bodes de Sangre, just at the moment when the bodorrio goes to hell. By successfully alternating the Catalan of the added characters with Lorca’s Castilian, this company, which emerged from the Performing Arts degree at the ERAM university school (UdG), transports viewers of Lorca’s drama to the festival of the life of survivors.
Catalan version, here
