'The Gravedigger': a necessary show

The new era of Teatre del Raval under the direction of Pep Tosar and Evelyn Arévalo is based on the premise of artistic excellence and humanistic commitment. This was evident in the magnificent inaugural show about Federico García Lorca, which just ended its run last Friday and has been succeeded by L’enterrador (The Gravedigger). It is a monologue written by Gerard Vázquez and performed by Pepe Zapata that has toured much of Spain and speaks of the Francoist mass graves through the true story of Leonci Badia Navarro, better known as the gravedigger of Paterna.

Badia was a Republican soldier who saved his life and was condemned to work as a gravedigger in the Paterna cemetery, where over two thousand Republicans are buried in mass graves. Risking his life, Badia Navarro cleaned the bodies and identified them with notes inside small bottles, hoping that in the future they could be exhumed and receive a dignified burial. He kept scraps of clothing, pipes, and any object that could help with identification.

The play fictionally recreates the feat of this unknown hero in a metatheatrical production that is as simple and stripped-down as it is effective in illustrating the character's fear and the cruelty of the Francoists, and also in advocating for the exhumation of all the graves. The text works even though it opens more doors than it closes. And it does so because of the actor's dedication, devoted to an exultant histrionism. I would ask for a bit of restraint, but Zapata combines the cry of rage with the nostalgic conversation with the corpses. L’enterrador is one of those proposals that we call necessary, especially so that they reach the public for whom the Civil War is just a few pages in the ESO history book and not a reality that is still very much alive for so many families.