From being a box office hit to managing two theaters at the age of 25: La Fábrica opens

BarcelonaBehind Barcelona's Teatro La Gleva are two families, one literal and the other in the broader sense. When this small space in the Farró neighborhood opened its doors in 2017, it was led by cultural manager, journalist, and theater critic Albert de la Torre, who wanted "to keep the thread of tradition intact" and to bring back to the stage some of the names from his generation or the previous one that he considered important and that he believed had been marginalized. renewal Theatrical. Names like Mario Gas, Angel Pavlovsky, Juan Ollé, and Ramon Simó had to share space with young and emerging companies. When De la Torre fell ill in 2019, his son Daniel, who had just come of age and was working as a ticket seller, took over as director. Now, at 25 and well past the ordeal, Daniel de la Torre is growing the family forming a creative tandem with his father.

This Tuesday, the new La Fàbrica theater opens in the same Farró neighborhood, in Plaza de Mañé i Flaquer. It's 500 m² in two theaters (one with 50-100 seats and the other with 200-300 people) that will maintain the philosophy they have consolidated at La Gleva: theatrical commitment, uniqueness, and a certain anarchy. The theater's name comes from the fact that this site, which maintains an industrial and unfinished aesthetic, was home to the Numax Workshop, the appliance factory from a century ago that was self-managed by workers during the Transition. When that project failed, the workers, with the resistance fund, commissioned a documentary by Joaquim Jordà (Numax presents..., 1979), which "reflects on the collapse of utopia" and "confronts the outdated tradition of theater with documentary film," explains theater director Albert Arribas.

It could be said that the three venues, now under the name Teatres del Farró, also draw on the vocational and chaotic spirit of the theater of the Transition. "La Gleva is made from a very personal taste, that of Albert de la Torre, but he has very solid theatrical criteria. And they have become a family. It has an informal component that we often miss in other venues. There is a festive spirit, people stay late at the theater bar," explains Arribas. "We have made a virtue out of limitation," affirms Daniel de la Torre, who defends the proximity with the companies, the artistic and logistical support to the artists, and the networks of friends. The programming advisory board also defines it as anarchic and draws on recommendations from friends like Arribas, Ramon Simó, Mario Gas, Pablo Macho, Emma Arquillué, and Magda Puyo. "And from the friends of our friends," they add.

Virginia Woolf to open doors

The show that will raise the curtain of La Fàbrica will be the co-production with Freshwater, the premiere in the State of the only play written by Virginia Woolf, here with dramaturgy and direction by Albert Arribas –one of the favorite sons of the family La Gleva, where she has already premiered four shows—and a special opening prologue and epilogue by Lluïsa Cunillé. The cast includes ten performers who demonstrate the intergenerational ambition of theater (Pep Munné, Mario Gas, Cristi Garbo, Paula Blanco, Carlos Martínez, Antonia Jaume, among others) and who play the role of the Victorian culture's foibles who spend the afternoon in this small town where her aunt spent her summers. "It's a very madcap comedy, which seems like a joke. There's a painter, a poet, a photographer, a philosopher, a maid, an actress, and a monkey who plan how to get two coffins to India because two of them want to be buried," Arribas explains. "A hybrid that breaks theatrical conventions and anticipates the main theatrical renewals of the 20th century." The work, written between 1927 and 1935, was not published and premiered with all the eres and uts until the 70s. For Arribas, it is "a tribute to teiatru, to the precariousness of the theater, which fascinates her, and therefore the dialogues are of an old-fashioned farce, but at the same time it takes us to a subconscious dimension that is modernist," he says.

This year, they plan to program 30 shows throughout the season, 10 of them their own productions. "It's a precarious space, but not precarious," says Arribas, because in addition to helping co-produce the shows, they are committed to long-running performances. Both for the renovation of the space and for the programming, they have received grants from the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat (Catalan government). The next premiere will be a revival of the musical tribute. Sondheim x Sondheim, a show by Ferran Dordal based on texts by Jacint Verdaguer (Supreme worm) and two guest companies (Teatro del Espejo and La Húngara). La Fábrica's layout will change depending on the performance, as the stands and seats are movable. It will also have a bar open all day and evening. "We don't need new theaters, we need more spaces to do theater," stated Arribas, paraphrasing Jean-Guy Lecat, the famous designer of stage spaces and a 25-year collaborator of Peter Brook, who also advised on the design of La Fábrica; he was walking around the hall on Monday. "People who use it and who finish it."

In La Gleva, the season will start the following day, Wednesday the 17th, with In full hands, by Toni Rumbau, the great Catalan puppeteer and founder of the Malic Theatre, in a show celebrating his 50-year career. This will be followed by a comedy with texts by Rusiñol (The important thing is to participate), Roger Vila directing Penthesilea by Heinrich von Kleist and the clown by Cristi Garbo. The idea is for the three theaters at the Teatres del Farró to operate simultaneously, with staggered schedules between 7 and 9 p.m.