The name of Marta Barceló may not ring a bell. However, the Mallorcan actress, trapeze artist and playwright will be one of the protagonists of the resumption of the theater season, since two theaters in Barcelona will premiere her texts, Tocar mare (Sala Beckett) and Zona inundable (Teatre Nacional). The first, closely related to Abans que arribi l’alemany, a piece about Alzheimer’s that was at the Escenari Brossa four years ago and has been translated into English, Greek, Italian and Spanish. The second, a documentary work based on the brutal floods that Sant Llorenç des Cardassar suffered in 2018.
The case of Marta Barceló is not unique. The coming season is one of new opportunities, which does not mean offering quality alternatives to young people, but rather opening the city’s theatrical scene to forms, names and aesthetics that have been left under the waters of the last two crises. It is significant, for example, that there is no Chekhov or Shakespeare on the Lliure and TNC schedules, and few classics. A Lorca, a Priestley, an O’Neill and a Guimerà discreetly rear their heads among the tide of contemporary authors. It is true that the four take away the great productions of the public theaters, but it seems that the Barcelona theater wants, once and for all, to walk towards Europe, where what is always in charge is what is being done and written now and not one hundred and fifty years ago.
There are many artists here who have been working so well for a few years that they ask for an alternative. Jordi Prat i Coll and José y la Hermanas de el, for example, are looking for chest do at the Lliure, with, respectively, Fàtima, a splendid piece that we have already seen at the Grec, and Bad Talent Contest. It’s not that it’s their last chance to climb the ladder and become essential, but it is to get out of the nebulous terrain of half measures where a good part of the theatrical population is locked up, so precarious, so lacking in resources.
Judith Pujol, Culture in Conflict, Josep Julien, Daniel J. Meyer, even Magda Puyo, who returns to the fray with two plays after years of directing the Institut del Teatre, will try to ensure that this is not the last time a public theater programs them . Barcelona is the city of walls. They are very difficult to climb and, when you are at the top, any gust of wind brings you back to the ground.
Among the real young people to watch closely we have Lucia del Greco, who last year directed a splendid El desig del cor at the Tantaranata, who will lead a production by Beckett and Temporada Alta based on a work by David Plana . Let’s not forget Moha Amazian, the extraordinary actor from Vic whom we saw in Carrer Robadors by Julio Manrique-Mathias Énard, who will play Bonobo at the TNC. Or by Juana Dolores Romero, who will also premiere a new piece in Temporada Alta and later at the Antic Teatre, HIT ME IF I’M PRETTY or Vladímir Maiakovski es va suïcidar por amor, after the shocking
Belgian and Portuguese
At an international level, Barcelona follows continental trends, where Belgians and Portuguese mark the line to follow, the avant-garde and desire. At the TNC, due to the good understanding between the director Carme Portaceli and the Brussels KVS, we will receive the co-production of Bovary (March 2023) and Michael de Cock will direct the Catalan version of L’alquimista by Marguerite Yourcenar (May 2023 ), but before that we will have had the Portuguese production of Assaig on blindness (September), adapted by Clàudia Cedó, and Belgians Peeping Tom’s Tryptich (November).
In the Lliure, the brand new director of the Avinyó Festival, the Portuguese Tiago Rodrigues, will recover Catarina e a beauty of killing fascists, a piece canceled by the pandemic. And the Belgians Miet Warlop and Anne-Cécile Vandalem will offer us, respectively, Kingdom (March 2023) and One song (April 2023). The Chilean Marco Layera and the Argentinian Pablo Messiez also return, authors and directors that we long for from Landscapes to not color The temps that estigem together.
On a negative note, it is surprising that shows as good as Una imagen interior, by El Conde de Torrefiel, and Mivion. Ràdio Sarajevo, from La Conquesta del Pol Sud, do not have a theater in Barcelona to do the season and that more people can discover them after successfully passing through the Grec. Two companies that tour Europe and are warmly received wherever they go. To think.
