Oriol Pla receives the National Theater Award: "I feel as if it were an accident, a confusion"

BarcelonaAwards always catch Oriol Pla working. This Wednesday at noon, while he was at the San Sebastián Festival presenting the film Esta soledad, by Javier Giner (Yo, adicto), the actor received a call from the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, to tell him that he has been awarded the National Theater Prize, which is granted by the Ministry of Culture and is endowed with 30,000 euros.

"I collapsed a little. It's as if it were an accident, as if there had been a confusion. I said to him: 'Are you sure?'. I feel like it doesn't fit, there is a bit of discomfort in the recognition," states Pla to ARA via video call. Perhaps it is because of what they told him right after from home, to bring him back down to earth: "My father [Quimet Pla] told me that there are many people who deserve it more than I do," says the actor, who recognizes the artistic influence of the preceding generations. "Physical theater is the narrative continuation of my parents. I feel that the tree is bigger, I feel that it is shared with my parents and the families of the clowns, the Galindos, the Escarlatas, the Poltronas...". When he left the Hotel Maria Cristina, Oriol Pla found the entire film crew applauding him.

On the last day of filming for Esta soledad he found out that he had won the International Emmy for Best Actor for the series Yo, adicto (2025). Before, Oriol Pla (Barcelona, 1993) had won a Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts together with his family for Travy, two Gaudí awards for Petra and Incerta Glòria (2018 and 2019), a Butaca for La calavera de Connemara (2018) and now the jury has recognized him with the National Prize for his masterful performance in Gola, the show that he himself co-wrote with Pau Matas. It premiered in November 2024 at the Temporada Alta festival and, afterwards, had a season at the National Theater of Catalonia. "It is an impressive production in which he demonstrates a mastery of different arts and disciplines with an extraordinary technique, and in which he prominently introduces the language of the clown into the theatrical act with virtuosity," states the jury.

"I wanted to do mime and clowning, things from my childhood, but it seemed to me that it was already old-fashioned. It makes me happy to have turned that around, and to bring it into contemporaneity. There is a friend of mine who says that I am the Rodrigo Cuevas of clowning", he explains. Specifically, Gola starts from the deadly sin to reflect on how we live in the society of the banquet. "Connecting the world of the clown to talk about anxieties, emptiness, constant consumption and not knowing how to stop is an incredible match", he states.

At the same time, Oriol Pla cannot stop working. "I have been announcing for many years that I will stop. On one hand, there is the passion for acting, which suits me well, if I didn't do it I would get sick, and, on the other, it is a maelstrom that takes its toll on you. Contemplating life from a place of stopping is appealing to me, but I am afraid of it because I don't know how it is done".

Since its premiere, Gola tasted success very quickly: the first performance in Barcelona ended with the audience standing and one of the most enthusiastic and long applauses remembered in the Sala Petita of the TNC. Very soon the play sold out its tickets. The show toured Catalonia and had a run at the Centro Dramático Nacional in Madrid in a Spanish version. From October 21st to November 15th it will be seen at the Sala Beckett. "My homeland is the theater, my natural state is the theater. When I say what I am, I say that I make theater. Creation theater is a place of tremendous freedom and a wonderful human encounter," he/she defends. "But I feel it demands more dedication, it is more painful and at the same time more satisfying, it is a path of dying and being reborn each time".