Giant, by Mark Rosenblatt, has been the sensation of the season in English theater. It premiered last fall at the Royal Court Theatre and this spring was rescheduled at a commercial West End venue, the Harold Pinter Theatre, and has won three Olivier Awards. The play—something unusual—is playing in London and at the Teatro Romea in Barcelona, in the show's second production. All this is thanks to the keen eye of Josep Maria Pou, who saw it and came away enthusiastic. The actor plays the writer Roald Dahl at a critical moment: having become the great Anglo-Saxon author of young adult literature, when he is about to publish The witchesIn 1983, he was accused of anti-Semitism for an article containing statements such as: "Never before in the history of man has a race passed so rapidly from being a pitiable victim to a barbaric murderer." Giant arrives at the Grec Festival (until August 3) in the midst of the war in the Middle East.

The never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine is a thorny issue on which few speak their minds, as is currently evident among European leaders, except for Pedro Sánchez, who are incapable not only of influencing but even of condemning the genocide being carried out by the extremist Netanyahu government in Gaza and Ciza. Deadly silences stand between the desire for an impossible peace and the blood of the thousands of murdered Palestinians. As you well know, any criticism, including this one, of the Israeli government's actions is considered by international Zionism as an act of antisemitism.

There are two reasons why Josep Maria Pou (Mollet del Vallès, 1944) threw himself headlong into carrying Giant by Mark Rosenblatt on the Catalan stage. The most selfish reason, admits the actor and director of the Romea Theatre, was discovering that the protagonist was Roald Dahl (Llandaff, 1916 - Oxford, 1990). "Strange and complicated. The role seemed written for me," jokes Pou. The other reason—the main one—is the theme of the show. Giant, which premieres on July 5 at the Teatre Romea as part of the Grec festival, recreates a day in the life of Roald Dahl in August 1983, just after he published an incendiary review against the Israelis in the magazine Literary ReviewIn that text, Dahl referred to the 1982 conflict with Lebanon and said that during the invasion, "everyone started hating Israel."

Josep Maria Pou shows me the photo he has as the background on his phone: it shows a disheveled Jordi Pujol, his tie askew, a living image of defeat. He tells me he's spent hours and hours looking at him, during breaks in filming and in the mornings, preparing the scenes, to put himself in the shoes of the former president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) in the film. Our Father, which hits theaters this Wednesday. The actor gives us two generous hours to talk calmly about theater and life.