A professor passionate about 'Phaedra' wants to entrust his love to the Library Theatre.

BarcelonaThe first time actor Romain Daroles played Phaedrus! He did it in a high school classroom, before the eyes of expectant students who didn't know what this boy was doing talking about the work of Jean Racine. The show, written by Swiss director François Gremaud (Bern, 1975), was initially conceived as a performative lecture to introduce this classic to teenagers; in fact, for four years it toured Swiss high schools. Its success in the classroom propelled the play into the mainstream theater circuit, and from there it continued to take off: in 2019 it was performed at the Avignon Festival and now it arrives in Barcelona, ​​in a Spanish premiere this Wednesday at the Library Theater as part of the Flaix de Tardor festival, and will be performed in French with a cover letter. "It has been performed more than 500 times. It's a very well-staged production that explains Phaedra "In a different way, with a sense of humor and accessible to everyone," summarizes Narcís Puig, artistic director of Flash de Otoño.

Every time he takes the stage, Daroles faces the challenge of transforming into a teacher passionate about Phaedra who wants to share his love for Racine's work with everyone who listens to him. "We've kept the initial structure designed for schools, in which the teacher starts and progresses a bit like a Trojan horse. The audience gradually encounters the surprises and wordplay of the play and realizes that it's all fun," explains the performer. He moves in and out of Racine's text, combining the role of teacher with the characters in the play and also alternating Gremaud's text with the Alexandrine verses of the classic. "The initial idea was to try to capture the attention of a teenage audience at nine in the morning. That's why the show is full of humor and homages to Racine's language," adds Daroles.

A play where history is a pretext

In French-speaking countries, Phaedra It's a well-known text that's frequently used in schools. However, the actor has found that when he's taken the show to other countries like Italy or Germany, it takes on a different meaning. "When I perform it abroad, I feel that the educational dimension becomes stronger because the text isn't as widely known. It makes more sense to perform it for an audience unfamiliar with Racine, because it gives it more value," Daroles emphasizes. Phaedra It is a tragedy published in 1677 that draws on the Greek myth of the same name, about a woman in love with her stepson Hippolytus. "In reality, however, the story is a pretext. The most important thing is what happens between the performer and the audience. Despite the distance that separates us—and even more so here, because I speak neither Catalan nor Spanish—the goal is to give the audience an intense theatrical experience, and that's why I work primarily through masks, making the performance very visual," he explains.

In keeping with the idea of a performative lecture, the stage space and costumes of Phaedrus! They are based on simplicity. Daroles appears before the audience wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, and performs accompanied only by a table. "Gremaud's reference point is Peter Brook and the idea that with nothing, you can do everything," the performer points out. "That's why we play with empty space and with the intention of leaving room for the imagination."