The mystery of the tarot cards in a too static and contained show
'The sixteenth number of the major arcana' by Oriol Puig Grau opens questions with supernatural elements
The sixteenth of the major arcana Text and direction: Oriol Puig Grau
- Performers: Lluïsa Castell, Mariona Pagès, Alba Pujol and Laura RoigSala Beckett. Until August 2nd
The title of the new proposal by Oriol Puig Grau, author of the acclaimed Karaoke Elusia, I told the mystery behind the tarot cards. Specifically, this mystery refers to the Tower card, which is generally interpreted as divine wrath announcing catastrophe, chaos, and ruin. However, it can also have a positive meaning: to stir a person to get them out of their comfort zone and confront the world. The sixteenth number of the major arcana rises above the first interpretation. Oriol Puig Grau's work presents a kind of journalistic investigation into the history of an isolated house struck by lightning. In the building, located on the outskirts of a town, youth used to raves, and it was inhabited by a mysterious Russian woman.
The journalist wants to write a report after seeing a strange photograph with some of the attendees. For this reason, she will organize interviews with one of the regular girls at the parties, with the former owner of the house, and with the daughter of a chauffeur and magician who served the owner's parents.
Like in a David Lynch script, the information opens up questions and creates a mystery with supernatural elements. The work functions well in the first two conversations, but in the third, the prominence of the chauffeur-wizard figure (and not just any wizard, but a sort of David Copperfield who makes people and even houses disappear) diverts the mystery in favor of uninteresting information for the plot.
The staging by the author is tremendously static, with a deliberately restrained direction of the actresses. Lluïsa Castell's solvency and stage presence stand out, but the direction is neglected, with details such as the impossible attempt to record conversations from three meters away, or the fact that the journalist says she has not visited the house in question. Consequently, she seems to be unaware of the rule of the reporting genre, which is none other than to go, see, and explain (this is important for asking questions to those involved). Nor does a baroque-style stage space, which aims to evoke an unsettling atmosphere without achieving it, help.