Plaça Margarida Xirgu will be one of the reference spaces for the family shows of Grec 2023. In collaboration with festivals such as Flic or Petits Camaleons, Plaça de Montjuïc will host from June 28 to July 22 a dozen activities, which they include shows, concerts and workshops.
Do you want to know how the sheep in the flock feel? Well, you will be able to experience it first hand at the show Ramat symfònic, by Moon Ribas and Quim Girón. “We invite the public to graze”, explains Girón. “We started by observing the gregarious instinct and documented ourselves on transhumance. We worked with a pastor from Vallès, Alfons García Valverde. The audience wears loudspeakers as if they were seashells”. (Xirgu, 6-8/VII)
Farrés Brothers explore the atrocities that have been committed over the centuries in the HoHiHu show. The horrible history of humanity, directed by Marta Sitjà. “We started from a book we read as children about the atrocities in the history of the world, where the patriarchy dominates – explains Pep Farrés-. The image of two men working and a woman in the middle was repeated. Since we consider that everything can be explained to children, here we work in an archaeological site and go through different civilizations based on the objects, always hostile, that we find there”. (Xirgu, 13-15/VII)
Other places in the city, such as Sant Andreu Teatre, also offer family shows. Engruna Teatre presents Dins el cor del món, based on Sabrina Berman’s novel. “It’s the story of an autistic girl who is raised in a wild way – says Mireia Fernández-. We are dramatic, but Karen’s character has a great sense of humor.” (SAT, 12-13/VII)
Marta Almirall directs Jo soc d’aquí, from Roseland Musical, which is “a combination of many types of dances”, she explains. “We’ve been working on it for eleven months, and it’s been crazy. I wanted it to be a show that breathed youth art, and I pretty much let them do their thing. The argument takes place on an island in the Eixample: they are all neighbors who do not know each other, and who meet and interact. I wanted the music to be the buzz of Barcelona, ??and the Jokko Collective, which has been to Sónar, created it.” (SAT, 19-20/VII)
Also in Sant Andreu, Leandro Mendoza presents Vetus venustas, a circus show with young and veteran artists, such as a 78-year-old trapeze artist, who reflect on the circus and ageism. “It’s a documentary circus, where the artists explain their professional lives, such as when one of them worked with Ángel Cristo – mentions Mendoza-. They also talk about the problems of young artists, such as motherhood. I try to make a humanist circus”. (SAT, 5-6/VII)
Other shows that were presented yesterday and which have the circus as their central axis are Lady panda, with the Clara Poch Masià Company, which describes it as follows: “Two girls on stage and a pendulum that marks the show, which rotates around of the concepts of suspension, dead center and turning, vital turns”. (Flower Market, 10-12/VII).
Bet Miralta and Jordi Aspa, from Escarlata, distill in La grutesca “what happens with laughter, this versatile tool; we reflect on laughter, but we don’t aim to make people laugh.” (Flower Market, 20-21/VII). And Joan Català proposes a dialogue between the public and the subject in Idiòfona. (Fund. Miró, 22-23/VII).
