12 years ago, the anarchist collective FC Bergman, who had not yet finished their theater studies, premiered at the Toneelhuis in Antwerp an experimental piece entitled the measures in cubits that God our Lord dictated to Noah when building the ark to withstand the universal deluge: 300 el x 50 el x 30 el.
Not only has the piece not been wrecked, but it continues to be performed all over the world, with 15 performers plus around eighty volunteers from the place where it is performed, in this case associations of Poble Sec in Barcelona.
Yesterday evening, Teatre Lliure opened its season and did so with an impressive production, loaded with religious references, that Juan Carlos Martel wanted to bring to Barcelona in the last year that he directs the Barcelona entity.
On stage, half a dozen wooden houses of a small rural town, surrounded by fir trees. In the 2011 premiere, they took advantage of the Christmas trees that people had already thrown away. In the middle, a small lake with a fisherman. Almost a nativity scene. But a large screen will break the border between public space and private space entering these six houses.
Following a circular path that passes behind it, the camera shows us the interior: a bedridden, sick man; a lady on a table sneaking like a thief, while a man and a girl serve her food; a girl playing the piano with a teacher who marks her time; a woman trying to give birth and a man masturbating; four men drinking beer and playing darts; and finally another man putting firecrackers in a model of the town.
All of this suggests a society isolated in itself, where the relations between each other are contemptuous and cruel, and, from the title, one might think that another universal deluge would have to come to make it clean again with this society that does not know how to live in community. It’s an interpretation. The montage leaves beautiful, shocking and suggestive images on the viewer’s retina, so that no detail is missed.
