The Beckett Theatre throws the house out the window to celebrate ten years in Poblenou

BarcelonaWith the exciting aroma of the paellas that will serve as a popular lunch and with some firecrackers escaping in the background, Sala Beckett presented its new season this Friday on a street-level stage. "Welcome to Beckett's birthday party in Poblenou!", exclaims director Toni Casares with a burst of voice. Ten years ago, the theater moved from a basement in Gràcia to this large headquarters in the old industrial neighborhood, a former cooperative exceptionally renovated by the award-winning Flores i Prats firm. "It is a success story born from a conflict that could have ended badly. The process of expelling the city's own activities due to speculative processes was beginning then", recalled the current Secretary of State, Jordi Martí, formerly delegate of Culture for the Barcelona City Council. He participated in the search for and acquisition of the new space to save a theater project that had proven fundamental for Catalan authorship and with a historic past of commitment, because, as Xavier Marcé recalled, "the theater was founded in the late 70s by José Sanchis Sinisterra and Teatro Fronterizo".

The new headquarters opened in July 2016 with the Summer Workshop and the season opened with The Disappearance of Wendy, by the late Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, and Kilometers, by Marilia Samper. "The building was saved from demolition or conversion into a tourist business thanks to the neighborhood movement and the management of the City Council", admitted Casares, and that is why they have reserved the inauguration of next season for the amateur theater company of the Centre Moral i Cultural del Poblenou and the play Scoop by Enric Folch.

, which connects with the quantum physics ofEl forat blanc, which connects with the quantum physics of El temps de Planck which they premiered in 2000. The multi-award-winning Victoria Szpunberg, president of the Beckett's board, will premiere Un home bo, a chamber play with actors Xavi Sáez and Júlia Mascort about "masculine goodness" and militancy. The third own production will be by Ferran Dordal, who will adapt Franz Kafka's El castell by Franz Kafka.

There will also be other names closely linked to the venue, such as Mercè Sàrrias with the Catalan-Quebecois project Les distàncies; Carles Batlle and David Plana, who will be two of the veteran authors participating in a cycle of dramatized readings by authors from the house; and the duo Lluísa Cunillé - Xavier Albertí, from whom Compto cada passa meva sobre la terra is recovered, which at the same time is part of a cycle dedicated to the beloved Oriol Genís. "An actor of personal and coherent trajectory, built on a love for artistic risk, outside the comfort zone, with the capacity to make his own characters outside the commonplace", pointed out Casares. The programming, therefore, will include other works by him such as Una nit amb Andrés Villarrosa, by Marc Rosich; Verbagàlia, by Víctor Català, and a third premiere to be confirmed. The actor, emotional, admitted that he was "in shock".

The Beckett will continue to bet on emerging Catalan names. This year they will feature the company Al Dente with Fama fomo fumu! Gola will also return, a brilliant show by Pau Matas and Oriol Pla that premiered at the Teatre Nacional. The resident company will be the theatrical version of La Ludwig Band, the Col·lectiu Pedant a Missa i Repicant, which will also present a musical comedy titled Urinaris Àngels. Núria Corominas, from the company Las Huecas but here as a solo artist, will be the venue's resident author.

More proper names: Mario Gas will tread the Beckett stage with a monologue, El pesimismo alegre, by Fernando Bernués; and the Beckettian clown Pepa Plana will spend Christmas at the Beckett. Despite "the difficulties in accommodating artists", denounces Casares, the Beckett will host proposals from the rest of Spain, such as the Navarrese company Las Nenas Theatre and Mantener fuera del alcance de los niños by María Velasco.

"Without the Sala Beckett project, the Catalan theatrical model cannot be understood", said Isabel Vidal, president of Adetca, who highlighted the public service vocation of this theater – which is managed by a foundation of authors and financed with public resources as a creation factory –, its capacity for regeneration and constant impulse of Catalan authorship, the improvement of its neighborhoods, the humanistic feeling of the programming, the political commitment and coherence. The Beckett will host the poetry cycle Alcools, the Shakespeare Festival, Clàssics and Escena Poblenou. "Long live theatre and long live Poblenou!", Casares concludes. The neighborhood already sits at tables with checkered tablecloths.