Five stage experiments that will leave you speechless after leaving the theater

BarcelonaEvery two years, the National Theatre of Catalonia (TNC) invites companies that break with conventional norms and embrace risk to its facilities. "These are artists who perform a very important task in expanding the language of theatre," emphasizes TNC director Carme Portaceli. This gathering is part of the ZIP Festival and will take place this year from March 25 to 29. Under the coordination of Judit Pujol, the festival has programmed five productions that will unfold across various spaces within the theatre, from the Sala Tallers and the Sala Petita to the storage areas. To kick off ZIP, the company Atresbandes will premiere Impossible to imagine anything, a piece that draws on the current context of collapse to question uncertainty and emptiness. "It's like a cassette with an A-side and a B-side. The first is the impossibility of imagining anything, of groping in the dark about everything we're experiencing. And the second revolves around the impossibility of not imagining, because imagination is inherent to us," explains one of the company members, Albert Pérez Hidalgo.

Impossibility also appears in The Chevaliers The Detectives, with a production divided into two chapters—performed on different days—explores the search for the Holy Grail. "The first chapter features a live investigation starring detectives from the 1970s. The second is a self-contained piece that addresses failure and the self-destructive pursuit of success through a masculine lens," explains Maria Garcia of The Detectives.

ZIP has also programmed one of the most talked-about names in recent years on the alternative and eclectic scene: the duo Pere Jou and Aurora Bauzà, two creators who work with light and sound to envelop audiences in hypnotic atmospheres. On this occasion, they will present a performance installation entitled The light of the wolf does not weigh in the TNC's storage facilities. There, they will place an object about nine meters long, suspended three meters high, off which the music and lighting will bounce. "It will become an organic and mechanical presence," Jou explains.

Between war and celebration

The cuplé singer and neo-vedet Glòria Ribera will take to the TNC stage for the first time with The bomb goesA concert-performance based on the popular songs that speak of attacks, wars, and bombs in 1920s Barcelona. "First, I stage a pathetic and decadent Europe that executes, then I make a call for the militarization of the audience, and in the end... things turn around," explains Ribera, who with this proposal has sought "to speak from the perspective of..."

The latest offering from ZIP is a dance performance by Laila Tafur that questions flamenco and its coexistence with the avant-garde. Titled Maja and BastardThe production combines folklore with cabaret and flamenco tablao to build an identity made of dances and cultural heritages.