Jordi Bosch's love letter to the theater

Barcelona"The theater is the place where humanity confronts itself," Jordi Bosch solemnly declares. We won't know for sure, but it's one of Arthur Miller's most famous quotes and one of the lines uttered by the protagonist of Death of a Comedian, Guillem Clua's show that premieres at the Romea Theater in Barcelona, ​​​​where it can be seen from March 21 to July 1. Clue changes Death of a Salesman, the most famous title by the American playwright, in a show that is "a love letter to the theater," he says, because it celebrates the power of theatrical fiction in our lives and also because the text is interwoven with phrases, scenes, authors and works that have marked his career and the history of universal theater. A dramaturgical game that gives the piece its due and turns it, in the process, into a Trivial Pursuit that will excite spectators, both the most experienced and the most laymen; those who don't want to miss any references will find them detailed in the edition published by Arola.

As it happened in The swallow, a hit that Emma Vilarasau performed in 2022, Death of a Comedian It starts from a very specific premise and grows through unexpected plot twists that the cast refuses to reveal. The play poses the question "how we all act together as comedians when it comes to living our daily lives, what roles we decide to play for others and for ourselves to get ahead," the author points out. The pretext is a niece (Mercè Pons) who hires a caregiver (Francesc Marginet) for her uncle, a great retired theater actor, with a very unusual assignment because he is not a man with any degenerative disease, but rather has a peculiarity that is communicated through the characters he has played throughout his career. "Why? What consequences will all this have? What secret is hidden?" Death of a Salesman "Arthur Miller?" Clua asks rhetorically.

Taking work home

The audience will be immersed in the history of theater through this actor, incapable of separating himself from his characters. "Theater has made me the person I am because you make very deep immersions in lives that, otherwise, I wouldn't have even sniffed at," says director Josep Maria Mestre. Jordi Bosch also affirms: "I wouldn't be who I am if I hadn't chosen this line of work," but immediately defends that he can "easily separate" his life and his work. "Oh, those people who take their work home and live in a balloon! I like going to the market, eating my lunch, and going for a walk; everything in its place," he explains.

Bosch, who is approaching 70 and has a 45-year career behind him, defines himself as "an actor who has learned to distill wonderful texts so that the emotions reach the audience." "Years ago a director told me: 'An actor must be an athlete of feelings and emotions'. You have to be prepared to make people laugh, cry, be ironic, anger, bring out the ugliest side of the world and that pam-pam-pam [he says sticking out his fingers] without having much time. You have to have it. It's a generous thing to be," he says.

Josep Maria Mestres states that the play takes advantage of Jordi Bosch's renowned comic vision, but also has a dose of tragedy. As was already seen in The swallow"Clua doesn't have the emotional urge to go to wild, moving places. He's not a cold or cerebral author," warns the director. "Fiction can make us grow personally. It gives us the tools to fight life, which can sometimes be rich and sometimes painful. Theater helps us live it in a transformative way; it has a healing power. That's why sometimes I come home at night and say, 'I need some fiction.'"