Two brilliant shows to open the Autumn Flash

The Italian Toni Servillo, with Le voci di Dante, and the Argentine Romina Paula, with a version ofThe Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, opened the first edition of Flash de Otoño this week. These are two very good shows for this small performing arts festival organized by Bitò—the same company that programs the Temporada Alta in Girona—with the support of the City Council and the Generalitat (Catalan government) and the collaboration of several theaters. Flash de Otoño is exploring the possibility of a broader theatrical showcase of international shows to open the season in Barcelona. For the moment, it is inspired by series such as the Regàs Memorial, which for six editions (from 1981 to 1987) brought quality international theater to Barcelona and which disappeared due to a lack of institutional support.

Recital by Toni Servillo

Conductors receive applause before beginning their performance. Actors don't, except for a few, like Toni Servillo, who was greeted with rapturous applause by the Goya Theater audience upon his entrance onto the stage. The applause was repeated, but even longer and more enthusiastic, when he concluded his recital. Le voci di Dante It has a dramatic structure and a stage space very similar (a lectern and a cyclorama that changes colors) to that of Tre modi por non morire, which we saw in the previous edition of Temporada Alta with the same protagonists. At the lectern, Servillo says and recites the textagram how the musicians of an orchestra read the staff. He is a soloist in a concert of words about a superb textagram by Giuseppe Montesano. A dive into the Divine Comedy which begins with the linguistic praise of Dante's work that established contemporary Italian and continues with the search for the author's voice on the journey. It works on two very distinct vocal levels (also in the surtitling) that modify the expressiveness and eloquence of the rhapsode depending on whether Dante's poem or Montesano's text is recited. The replied word and the excited word. The professorial tone and the emotional cry. The open gesture and the small gesture that attenuates the intensity.

There are fragments of the Divine Comedy, but above all, there's the essay with which Montesano clarifies, illuminates, and answers questions about the Tuscan writer's journey. And it's with these that the relevance of the old and beautiful text explodes, its clairvoyance in speaking of humanity. If I'm not mistaken, the recital concludes with the same word as the only remedy for our stupidity: love. Bravo!

A Williams of a psychologist

We weren't familiar with playwright and director Romina Paula, but we'll definitely be keeping up with her. The whole time It is a very free version ofThe Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams with embedded Frida Kahlo cutouts, which transforms the original with absolute respect and gives us four fabulous interpretations of naturalistic theater. In this version, the glass figures are small plant pots, the mother is a dominant but dynamic and well-off person, Laura's brother works at a barbecue restaurant and doesn't write but reads a lot, and Laura isn't lame but a kind of hikikomori who never leaves the house, a fanatic about doing nothing, after all. Family relationships, sexuality, and even the presence of the brother's friend are marked here by the psychological traits of the characters and, especially, by Laura's reasoned inaction. This sprinkles the performance with bursts of humor that bring it close to comedy, right up to a dramatic finale that brings tears to more than one audience member. Bravo!