Baron d'Evel: stimulating stage poetry

Baró d'Evel's shows are the result of artistic research linked to their path, their doubts and certainties, the world around them and a great curiosity that has led them to investigate colors, as we saw in Cliff and in The, And now about ceramics. They come from the world of contemporary circus with French influences, but little by little their work has been contaminated by other disciplines such as painting and dance, which in this Who are we? It becomes the protagonist, together with the visual poetry and the materiality of clay (a ceramic percussion engineer appears in the artistic file).

Who are we?, Camille Decourtye and Blaï Mateu Trias, founders and directors of the company, ask themselves and us in the first part of a triptych that will continue with more questions: who am I and where am I? And looking at the stage, we could say that from that dust comes this mud, as is evident in the disturbing and spectacular final scene (a stage space by Lluc Castells), in which a kind of mop or muppet A gigantic creature vomits bodies onto a beach that will later be filled with hundreds of pieces of plastic. A superb image. Despite this ending, Camille Decourtye, microphone in hand, encourages the audience to fight against what's coming. There's still hope, she says, surrounded by a brass and percussion band.

There aren't any actual circus acts, but there is acrobatic dancing. Luckily, Decourtye and Mateu still have their clown! They open the show and provide the first laughs, which are soon enriched by a fun scene with the entire company, inspired by the clown's charming falls and punches, reminiscent of the black-and-white films of Charlot. But the laughs end there. Animals? Only a little dog appears. The journey continues. An aesthetically powerful journey, supported by lighting that I find sad, subterranean, but very appropriate (Cube) and a very present soundtrack (Fanny Thollot and Pierre-François Dufour), which includes an operatic aria, songs (in the magnificent voice of Yolanda Sey), and instrumental music.

A co-production of the Grec Festival, we don't know at this time if this show, which premiered at the Avignon Festival, will be seen in Barcelona during the season as it should be, given its quality and because it's one of those that creates an audience.