10 unmissable shows from the theatrical return
From Mercè Rodoreda to Virginia Woolf and from Ramon Madaula to Berta Prieto: autumn arrives loaded with good theater.
BarcelonaThe theatre season starts with good omens and two new features: a new theatre in the Farró neighbourhood, called La Fàbrica, and a festival exclusively of international proposals that serves the Temporada Alta in Barcelona, baptized as Autumn Flash, which will be spread across different venues. As usual, the season kicks off with a recap of some of last year's achievements (The storm, Archimedes' principle, Grand Canyon, The housekeeper, Giant, etc.) and even years ago, like the mythical Christmas at Casa Cupiello (in November at the Library). But it also has a series of must-see premieres planned. We've selected 10 productions we won't want to miss this fall.
Alex Rigola
Free Theater
From September 18 to October 19
The Devil and His Entourage will be at the Lliure Theatre under the direction of Àlex Rigola, who returns to the big screen with Mikhail Bulgakov's classic, which addresses social criticism, mysticism, and love. Nao Albet and Laia Manzanares play the writer punished by the regime and his lover Margarida, whom he will try to help with the diabolical gang led by the magician Woland; that is, Satan; that is, Francisco Garrido.
The Veronal
National theater
From September 24th to October 9th
After closing the Venice Film Festival, the Catalan company with the greatest international request lands at the Teatre Nacional, where they have already rehearsed. Death and Spring by Mercè Rodoreda, which opens the season. It will be a radical undertaking that doesn't stage the writer's unfinished novel, but rather reinterprets it in a format close to a concert and an installation. A new Veronal experience.
Albert Arribas
The Factory
From September 16 to October 26
The satirical comedy written by Virginia Woolf between 1923 and 1935 and premiered posthumously in 1976, her only theatrical work, arrives in Catalan with a translation by Albert Arribas and dramaturgy by Lluïsa Cunillé. It also serves as the opening party for the new La Fàbrica theater, sister to La Gleva, both under the umbrella of Teatres del Farró. Míriam Alamany, Paula Blanco, Cristi Garbo, Mario Gas, and Pep Munné star in this show that addresses gender and the friction between reality and representation.
Paco Mir
Poliorama Theatre
From September 10 to October 5
Ramon Madaula has emerged as the most prolific and effective playwright (and, consequently, actor) in Catalan theater. Now he returns with a comedy in which he teams up with Jordi Boixaderas in a show that takes place in the performance ofThe shepherds and uses all its symbolism to talk about friendship, white lies and the limits of honesty.
Berta Prieto
Beckett Room
From September 17 to October 19
One of the most popular shows is back destroyers from last season. A sharp and comic critique of the contemporary world, especially in the art sector and among Generation Z. A theatrical experiment full of discoveries, references, bombshells, and mind-blowing, banal, disruptive, intelligent, original, and uncomfortable scenes that could be the start of a wonderful career.
Jordi Milan
Romea Theater
From September 17 to November 2
Cubana celebrates the company's 45th anniversary by returning to the first theater that welcomed them indoors. And they're doing so with a premiere, a tribute to amateur theater, using the excuse Love came by taxi, by Rafael Anglada, a popular title in amateur theater. Cubana claims it will be a musical. Made in La Cubana and this can mean anything.
Pau Carrió
The Villarroel
From October 19 to November 16
A dark and hilarious play about a man searching for his amputated hand. A gruesome and quirky black comedy that touches on issues of racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Martin McDonagh (The beauty queen of Leenane, The Connemara Skull, Hidden in Bruges): no need to add much more. Well, yes, Pol López.
Francesc Cuéllar
Akademia Theatre
From December 12 to January 11
How can we explain the awkwardness that develops between two friends? A veteran actress refuses to film a nude scene that the director, a younger friend, considers crucial. We enter the intimacy of a crisis. Relations of power, consent, trust, ethics. A promising acting duel between Míriam Iscla and Dafnis Balduz.
Daniel English
Condal Theatre
From December 13 to January 11
Between classic and large-format musicals in Spanish, such as The Phantom of the Opera (Tivoli, from September 23) and the premiere of Tootsie (Apolo, October 10, with Diana Roig and Ivan Labanda), this production led by director Daniel Anglès, choreographer Ariadna Peya and musician Andreu Gallén takes advantage of the mythical aura that the first Catalan production had thirty years ago and revitalizes it with a stellar cast, with Triquell as the narrator and with Triquell as the narrator being born who end up falling in love with the same girl, Tai Fati.
Albert Boronat
Heartbreak Hotel
From December 16 to January 25
Among the shows revived by the Heartbreak Hotel, the pearl theater, this one is special, intimate, and unique. A terrifying and philosophical literary narrative. A writer searches aloud for his science fiction story in a mountain house. Following the encounter with the owner of the place is "The Hidden Cat": a psychological thriller and an acting duel between Sergi Torrecilla and Javier Beltrán.