A great Àngels Gonyalons at Romea

The worship of beauty and narcissistic vanity are now very present in society through the world of social networks. You are as you are seen. And you must always be seen well. It's not about making a pact with the devil to preserve youth, but with personal trainers and cosmetic shops to groom yourself.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), the famous novel by Oscar Wilde, has had several cinematic and theatrical versions, such as the English musical starring Kevin Kennedy which begins a major tour of the UK in the autumn; a Spanish musical presented in June at the Marquina Theatre in Madrid, and the monologue premiered in New York by Sarah Snook (star of the series "Succession) in which the actress played twenty-three characters.

Something similar does Àngels Gonyalons in the musical monologue imagined by playwright and director Marc Rosich and composer Jordi Cornudella. The proposal begins with the poet Wilde and his reflections on art: "There are no moral or immoral books. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all". And Gonyalons takes on all the roles of the story. She speaks and sings with extraordinary diction. The actress excels in her performance, very well supported by the Leos String Quintet and a trio that act as stagehands moving scenic elements as well as interacting with her.

Rosich's version is presented to us temporarily decontextualized, far from the gothic terror of the original, within the coordinates of contemporary dramatic freeze-drying and in a stage space of a sterile white that kills passion and stains everything except her very fitting costume. An aesthetic decision that, in our opinion, works against the emotional strength of the text. Nor do we find the replacement of the painting with a kind of transparent plastic monolith that changes colors and even moves on its own to be appropriate. Despite these drawbacks, we are faced with a good performance for the showcase of one of the great Catalan actresses.