She knows that the theatrical context is “very hard for someone just starting out”, but Lucia del Greco is optimistic. She also knows that she has been “lucky” and “very determined.” And it is that last season she premiered El desig del cor, by Caryl Churchill, at the Tantarantana, and everything began to go up. To the point that he has already moved to the medium format, in the Sala de Baix de la Beckett (with 250 spectators), with a work by David Plana, Els encantats, which he has led to his terrain as an irreducible fan of Romeo Castellucci and of someone who believes that, on stage, the text “has the same weight as light, space and soundâ€. “I understand theater as a place where stage languages ​​have to be put at the same levelâ€, she adds.
The color desig left us speechless. Where did she come from, that young director who had thought of the staging as a third-party workshop from the Theater Institute, which had professional actors who enrolled in her proposal for “pure love of theater”? From someone who had not even finished studying (he still has a writing subject and the Final Degree Project left) and who demonstrated an unusual talent? Some of her teachers, like the playwright and director Jordi Prat i Coll, spoke wonders.
In Els encantats, part of their team is less than thirty years old, but they also have Cube.bz, perhaps the best, in lighting. “David Plana’s text has a point of mystery that leaves many things open and we have gotten hooked there,” says Lucia Del Greco, who acknowledges that there have been “artistic discrepancies” with the author, which she sees as normal, “because we are of two different generations.
The director and playwright of Italian origin gave up her doctorate in Purchased Literature at Oxford to study theater in Barcelona. During the time that she worked in a bookstore in the city, while waiting to be accepted at the prestigious English university, she was surprised by the “cultural fervor†of Barcelona and, when she became disenchanted with Oxford, she packed her bags and headed for Catalonia. . She was afraid to do it in Rome. And we already tell you that her Catalan is enviable.
Del Greco is part of a fifth, which is in its twenties, which is occupying local theaters in Barcelona, ​​with highly talented authors and directors, among whom we must highlight the most veteran of all, Oriol Pla, who He turns thirty in April and that last Christmas he showed again, with Travy, that he is five steps ahead of everyone. In parallel, José and his sisters (Gemma Polo, Alejandro Curiel, Marta DÃez, Carolina Manero and Glòria Ribera) have a couple of productions at the Lliure. In his thirties, Pablo Macho Otero (La Bella Otero) opens this March George Kaplan, by Frédéric Sontag, at the Tantarantana. And we also have Roger Torns and Oriol Morales, directors and playwrights.
Below, Las Huecas (Júlia Barbany, Esmeralda Colette, Núria Corominas, Andrea Pellejero and SofÃa Ana Martori) and Monte Isla (Andrea Pellejero, Adrià and Rut Girona) are causing a sensation. Even younger, Oriol Puig scored a full-chested C with Karaoke Elusia which, after receiving praise at the Beckett in 2020, has already stayed at the Centro Dramático Nacional in Madrid. Berta Prieto and Lola Rosales, born at the end of the last century, premiere at the Beckett in April Derecho a tantrum. The most trepidant mission of the Espies de Veritat. And let’s not forget the Mallorcan Miquel Mas Fiol, who in May will do Les penes del jove Werther at the Tantarantana.
Antic Teatre, Sala Beckett and Tantarantana are betting heavily on young people. The three theaters, from dramaturgically different points of view, are offering opportunities for the generational change to occur naturally. Las Chatis de Montalbán (Prieto and Rosales), for example, are a resident company of Beckett. In turn, the project to support young companies El Cicló del Tantarantana has been key to the development of troupes such as Produït per H.I.I.I.T. (Roger Torns), La Pulpe Teatro or El Eje. We also have to mention the DespertaLab grant from the Nau Ivanow and the Sala Atrium, awarded to people under thirty-five years of age. Right now it’s being enjoyed by AMAGA Produccions, who a few months ago brought Allò que hi ha després del diumenge to Beckett.
Del Greco, Torns and Las Huecas ask for passage in the big public theaters. They have arrived to break the mold and to question many things. The director of Italian origin already has projects for next year. She hasn’t premiered in the country where she was born, yet, but she’s already in contact with the avant-garde company Ricci Forte, who she’ll see at this summer’s Venice Biennale. “I believe in an international theater and I would like to be able to work in Italy,†she says. She’ll get it!
