Joglars arrive in Barcelona with Let Aristophanes Come Out!, an approach to its origins with the figure of the Greek playwright 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 play, which features five other interorettes: Pilar Sáenz, Dolors Tuneu, Xevi Vilà , Alberto Castrillo-Ferrer and Angelo Crotti in the cast. Fontserè is the actor who has directed Joglars since the start of Boadella, a company of which he is a partner along with Pilar Sánchez and Dolors Tuneu, and which is celebrating 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 at times assume 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”, refers Fontserè. “It premiered in January 2022, and we still have a few gigs and we inaugurated the Almada Festival (Portugal).”
Dolors Tuneu declares: “Aristophanes has been our reference. Through him we know the history of Greece and with ours we can know ours. We want to make a hymn to artistic freedom, because everything is a minefield. Censorship and above all, self-censorship curtails freedom. We claim freedom of expression and the defense of those who think differently from you. And humor helps to demolish certain ideas”.
The three partners have remarked that in these 60 years as a private company they have not stopped and are the oldest private company. “There have been moments of all kinds, such as the demonstrations for Teledeum -recalls Fontserè-. Jaume Collell was stabbed in Madrid and we had to stop the show”.
In the celebrations of these six decades, Joglars has devised a project for La Cúpula de Pruït, his place of work and rehearsals, “to do residence projects and musical groups”. Fontserè remembers that Santi Arisa 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 is about fitting this in with the other projects”, in the history of a company founded in 1962 by Albert Boadella, Carlota Soldevila and Anton Font. But the story continues, because, as Fontserè admits: “I have not lost the desire to play and I like this life of doing theater, of going on tour”.
The director also had words of admiration for the work of the La Calòrica company, whose piece Els ocell is also inspired by Aristophanes: “I admire La Calòrica, who works fast and they are geniuses.”
Let Aristophanes come out! is a production of 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 from May 3 to 7.
