The 37th Mostra d'Igualada, which will take place from April 16 to 19, will be the first directed by actor and theater director Joan Arqué, who took office at the end of June, replacing Ramon Giné. In this new stage, Arqué sets himself three major challenges. "With the programming, we have sought a balance between everything that is more emerging and what is more consolidated. We also want to showcase and promote our authorship, not only of text but also of dance, circus, and all disciplines, both nationally and internationally. The third pillar of our work consists of growing the Mostra in a sustainable way. We want to program more companies and be more representative of our local performing arts scene," explains the director.In this year's edition, out of almost a thousand proposals received, Arqué and his team have had the challenge of choosing 41. Among the most outstanding are A casa, the new production by Ortiga, a company that stands out for creating shows full of detail and beauty, and Un 8 by the company Inflable, which, with a 20-minute proposal, reflects on absence through the relationship between a child and his grandmother. Some proposals that have already been seen on other Catalan stages will also be presented, such as Manual para seres vivos by Thauma, and Fosca by Aurora Bauzà and Pere Jou. From the circus, shows like Una rueda que da vueltas by Almealera from Madrid; Tout/Rien by the Belgian company Modo Grosso; and La favola di Peter by the Italian company Principio Attivo Teatro will be featured. The inauguration will be led by the Canadians SNAFU, who will present a cabaret with puppets, objects, and projections titled The baby Tyler show.
"We encountered our adultocentrism a thousand times"
The company Hermanas Picohueso brings 'AHNI' to the Mostra d'Igualada, a show that contrasts adults and children to talk about the body
BarcelonaFor a decade they have been working non-stop. They have premiered nine shows of small, medium and large format, street and indoor, with the audience in the Italian style, standing, sitting in hammocks. "It has been a very prolific ten years. When we were five years old, it seemed like we were 84. Physically and mentally, we didn't feel emergent," explains Lluki Portas. She is one-third of the soul of Hermanas Picohueso, a company born in the Balearic Islands and also formed by Gal·la Peire and Aina Juanet. Artists and producers, they have made a niche for themselves in the theatre sector thanks, above all, to an innovative capacity, to incessantly seek new languages and to present scenic proposals, the result of deep research. Now they bring AHNI (Unidentified Human Actions) to the Mostra d'Igualada, their first production for a family audience but also for adults. The play will be shown on April 18th in various performances.
AHNI (Unidentified Human Actions), their first production for a family audience but also for adults. The play will be shown on April 18th in various performances.
One of the driving forces that has propelled Hermanas Picohueso throughout all this time is the research to create a different show each time. That's why when, after several productions for adults, the opportunity arose to create for a family audience, they didn't want to let it escape. "How could we use our language to reach children while avoiding infantilization?" asks Juanet. AHNI was born from research on rebellion, collectivity and creativity for another show. From there, they built a scenic proposal that places adults in hammocks, wearing dark glasses and headphones, and children in a nearby space where they will carry out a mission. "During the creation process, we ran into our adultocentrism a thousand times. At first, we had the adults' part very thought out and, on the other hand, the children's part was in service of the other. We worked on it so that the children would truly be the protagonists," says Portas.
Play between adults and children
AHNI premiered last year at the Grec Festival and, since then, has toured numerous venues and taken shape. "Our shows come from archives and research, they are very baroque in that sense. The first day we presented it, we realized that the part with the creatures couldn't have so much text, we had to change it to truly interest them and for them to have the weight of the show," highlights Peire. The game established between adults and children on stage is one of the keys to the production. "The children inhabit their space and have their parents in the background. They don't know if they are watching them or not, because they are wearing glasses. It is very interesting to see how they become uninhibited and surrender to the show, which invites them to team up to get the adults to recover their bodies," he adds.
On the other hand, the parents will enter into dialogue – and conflict – with their own bodies. A voice will question them about whether they give enough importance to corporeality. "In what way are we distancing ourselves from it? Do we live thinking that the body is not necessary? If the body is not necessary, neither is the earth, nor the rest," says Peire, and Portas adds: "In all our proposals there is very deep research behind them, but we never present it from indoctrination or from evidence. Through the scene, we can relate it to children without them feeling that we are boring them." On this occasion, moreover, the challenge was temporal: the production could not be excessively long (it lasts 25 minutes) and they had to create it in just two months, when they usually have more time.
![A moment from the show 'AHNI' with the adult audience in hammocks.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 6000 4000"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
After AHNI, Hermanas Picohueso premiered last September Skai is ful, a show for adults that is a fierce critique of the most forceful and violent masculinity. "We've poured a lot of our rage into it to say that we don't want a world obsessed with colonizing, with these technocrats who want to invade space because Earth is no longer useful to them. It also contains a reflection on the importance of asserting that mystery must remain mystery, that we don't need to control everything," explains Juanet. Skai is ful has not yet been seen in Catalonia, but the company hopes to bring it soon.
