'Death of a Comedian': Theater as a Compass and Refuge

Nobody wants to be a loser. And Willy Loman was. But that's not why Francesc Cardona, this retired actor with certain identity issues who revives the characters he's played throughout his career, can't even hear about Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller's seminal work. "Don't even mention it," Miranda, the niece, tells young Adri. It's one of many rules if he wants to work as his uncle's caregiver.

We won't discover the reason for Loman's curse until the final part of this moving declaration of love in Guillem Clua's plays. And what better way to do so than through the body and diction of a great actor and a collection of great fragments of universal theater, from Aeschylus to Pirandello, including Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Rostand. One greatest hits which gives the protagonist, the splendidly histrionic Jordi Bosch, a series of grand moments to shine, with the exquisite poetry of Oedipus, the melancholy of Prospero, the fury of Oberon, the resignation of Sonia, and Cyrano's beautiful words for Rosaura. The theater, then, stands as the compass and refuge for a mind disturbed not only by age but also by unspeakable past events.

Death of a Comedian It's a comedy to laugh at, as is clearly evident in the opening bars with an unleashed Jordi Bosch. In any case, a comedy about a powerful fraternal relationship and the difficult acceptance of oneself, in which the author plays with the confusion of identities without ignoring the constants of his work such as homosexuality and the strength of feelings.

Josep Maria Mestres has directed two of Guillem Clua's hits (The swallow and Justice), and in this work he once again excels with his precise pacing and character definition, always serving a text with very local references (Teatro Arnau, Josep Maria Flotats, TNC, La Cruz de Sant Jordi), and also with his commitment, in the final section, to a somewhat convoluted solution to the enigma. As a veteran actor with great physical expression that exploits his undeniable comic talent, Jordi Bosch can move from anger to cordiality, from enthusiasm to sadness, from excitement to frustration. The actor is very well supported by his two sparring partners (Mercè Pons and Francesc Marginet) in an effective realistic space by Joan Sabaté. In short, it is an entertaining lesson in theater as an emotional refuge.