You need to read 'Fantàstic Ramon', by Claudia Cedó

BarcelonaI sometimes struggle with the term "necessary" applied to culture: a necessary book, a necessary play, a necessary concert. From time to time, it seems to me that we burden culture with this responsibility too much, and that, in doing so, we forget about fun and entertainment for its own sake, about reading or watching a movie for the sheer pleasure of it, with no other goal than having a good time. This week I recommended the novel The life of bookseller AJ Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin (Periscopio; translation by Octavi Gil Pujol), saying that it's "pleasant to read." Someone asked me: "That means you didn't like it, did it?" I was surprised. Is it a bad thing to say that a book is pleasant? I could also say that it entertained me, because that's the absolute truth: I read it almost in one sitting. Is it a book that will remain forever in my memory? No. Did I enjoy reading it? Yes, because it's a novel...pleasant to read.

"Go to the theaters, but read plays, too!" This week I heard Clara Narvión and Bernat Dedeu make this demand to the media. Since I am a big fan of it, I agree, and I recommend a play, a dark comedy with a fantastical touch that will make me contradict myself, because it is a work—perhaps you've already guessed—"necessary." Comanegra has just published Fantastic Ramon, the text by Claudia Cedó that, in fact, It can still be seen in the main hall of the Teatre Lliure in Barcelona.. Cedó is one of the souls of Escenarios Especiales, a project that works to reflect on stage the real diversity that exists in our society, which means that people with functional diversity, autism spectrum disorder or special educational needs participate in its productions. With all this experience behind her, she has participated in the creation of the Ànima Lliure project, by Teatre Lliure, "which aims to make you see and conquer diverse bodies, which normally do not inhabit the stages."

They have also conquered the pages of Fantastic Ramon, which speaks about what happens in a "normal" town when a "different" child is born. I use quotation marks intentionally, because the work highlights this recurring terminology, that terrible dichotomy that has no other origin than the fear of difference, linked to the inability to see it in a positive light. In this type of "Twin Peaks In "Catalan style," as Cedó describes it, Ramon is a rag doll who neither moves, nor speaks, nor hears. The author explains very well what happens to the others, to the inhabitants of Santa Aurora de la Piedad –how ironic, in the choice of name– who must live together, but she also describes especially well the experience of the parents and their frustration and guilt for not knowing how to communicate well. For me, as the subject is very close to home, I was moved to feel represented, and I know that the same has happened to many other families. actors with different types of diversity, it is also so that it reaches all the people who do not live with the subject. Fantastic Ramon. It is necessary.