In Piti Español, one of the best screenwriters we have in the country, has a theory he used to explain in his university classes. He said that if the day after a program's broadcast people commented on three good moments, it had been a success. The thesis fits with the gala of Polònia that TV3 broadcast on Thursday night to commemorate its twenty years. Beyond record-breaking audience figures that confirm the emotional bond between the program and viewers, the gala had masterful moments. For example, Queco Novell's conversation with four of his political alter egos: Maragall, Illa, Puigdemont and Rajoy. The combination of reality and fiction, actor and characters, was a filigree that connected with the symbolic game of theatricality and satire. It represented the mirror game between television and politics very well, and it was a way to acknowledge Novell's work, who has become the man of a thousand faces.The video of the bad moments of Polònia accompanied by the delicate mischief of Els Amics de les Arts was masterful and hilarious. Nothing better than laughing at one's own slips and flaws. It shied away from constant self-praise, admitted blunders as inevitable in humor, and reminded us of the evolution of political correctness. The blackface, body-shaming, the ridiculing transvestism of women, racial stereotypes, and other absurdities that the song's lyrics reinforced were the best way to engage in self-criticism. A parody in itself, using the language of in memoriam to perform a hilarious harakiri. The caricature of the voluntary viewer as Pedro Sánchez demonstrated the dimension that, in these twenty years, Polònia has acquired.The enormous hairy testicles that the audience passed around the stalls are an inevitable allegory of the political context of the last two decades. The script made the most of the choral spectacle, nostalgia, collective memory, and the program's symbolic universe with chocolate croissants, gangnam styles, and Franco-Mercury vacuuming. The director was quick to connect the spectacle with the audience's amusement in the seats, even capturing the lick that the real Artur Mas gave to Duran i Lleida's clone. The script focused more on the action than on words, without affectation or demagoguery.It is difficult for a gala with a theatrical spirit to work on television, but a very balanced hybrid of the two languages was achieved, combining the epic of musicals and the effectiveness of sketches. A total show where people danced, sang, projected, and interacted with the audience, and which involved a large number of professionals who went beyond the stage. Enric Cambray's direction establishes him as a skilled tamer of complex shows. And all this to be performed only once. May the injection of talent, energy, and affection demonstrated in this gala serve to fuel Polònia for another twenty years.
