Xavier Albertí vindicates the "stratospheric" work of Josep Maria de Sagarra at the Teatre Nacional

BarcelonaXavier Albertí returns to the National Theatre three years laterMen and Days And he does so through the main entrance of the Sala Gran. The former director of the Teatre Nacional is leading the most ambitious Catalan theatrical repertoire initiative of the year. The crown of thornsAnd it's not just because of the large format, the eleven actors, and the tour through Catalonia and Mallorca, but because it aspires to place Josep Maria de Sagarra (1894-1961) in the place it believes he deserves.

"With Sagarra, we haven't carried out the same operations we did with Josep Pla, removing the lingering traces of Francoism to highlight his literary work. With Sagarra, it feels a bit tedious. Not for our citizens—who I think will have a quorum, and in fact, sales are going very well—but for those in the 60s and 70s who accused Sagarra of being simplistic, saying he wrote verses like someone urinating. Perhaps because he comes from..." ancient lineage"Perhaps because he accepted a decoration from Alfonso X awarded by Franco, perhaps because he gave a Mercè festival proclamation in Castilian Spanish from the City Hall balcony during the Franco regime," Albertí remarks. The director argues that all of Sagarra's work, the fifty books he published, are extraordinary, perhaps with the sole exception of Joan Capri's food adaptations. "It's curious that in Catalonia in 2025 we don't have a biography of Sagarra. We have too many significant gaps to consider the recovery of the culture interrupted by Francoism complete," he warns.

Feminist 'before the letter'

The crown of thornsThe play, which will run from November 13 to December 21, is set in late 18th-century Solsona, a small inland town with a conservative structure linked to the deeply rooted nobility. It was a place the author knew well and where she had spent several summers. There, she imagines a tangle of families and power: the Lord of Bellpuig (Abel Folk), down on his luck, needs to marry off his orphaned nephew to a strong-legged heiress, the daughter of the Lords of Miracle (Oriol Genís and Rosa Vila). The story explores motherhood, power, love, honor, and non-blood family, offering a critique of the society of the time. The role of the maid Marta (Àngels Gonyalons) embodies the play's title:The crown of thorns It appears in Gothic altarpieces in the 14th century, and it's not an element of humiliation but rather relates to the idea of self-sacrifice, of surrendering oneself to the redemption of society and to the ethical values that should govern us in order to have a better society," she explains. "Marta is an intelligent woman who struggles against a great heteropatriarchy within herself, and not her own."

The crown of thornsLike Sagarra's great works, it is written in verse. It comprises 4,664 lines—two hours of performance—with which the company has rehearsed to avoid any sing-song, simplistic, or rigid sound. "Sagarra's verse is a technical marvel," Albertí observes. "It's a score of extraordinary musicality." Sagarra writes in verse because, "above all, he is a poet," but also because when he returns from exile and writes without verse, "he sees that he doesn't connect with the Catalan public, held captive by the dark night of Francoism," explains Albertí, who emphasizes the author's literary background, his mastery of the Spanish Golden Age as well as Shakespeare, despite knowing that Francoism forbids the performance of foreign authors in Catalan. Period costumes (by Sílvia Delagneau and Marc Udina), classical set design (by Max Glaenzel), and Jordi Domènech playing the harpsichord complete the picture.

Ethical commitment

“Sagarra’s setting of the play in 1793 is not trivial; it’s right after the French Revolution. The moment the guillotine fell on the heads of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette is a turning point in the history of humanity: it transforms people from subjects into citizens,” Albertí explains. Nor is it a coincidence that Sagarra wrote it in 1930, the same year Lorca was writing The public"We are in a turbulent time. It is the end of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship and the Second Republic, which will also change the lives of citizens, is just around the corner."

And it is no coincidence that Albertí chooses this text now, which will be the fourth time it has been performed in professional theater (it premiered in 1930, went to the Romea in 1971 and to the Generalitat Dramatic Center in 1994):The crown of thorns "It will redeem a society and give others a dimension of freedom and global commitment to create a better society," he says. This is also what Albertí wants to do: for the audience to leave happy, but with a happiness that has an ethical and social dimension, the kind that gives us "the lasting joy of being members of a community."