Darkness. Lightning and thunder. Screams. With just these ingredients, it begins The big house, the new play written and directed by Sergi Belbel (Terrassa, 1963), which can be seen from January 20 to February 22 at the Teatre Gaudí in Barcelona. The stage, located in the middle of the auditorium, promises an experience for the most daring spectators, who, if they dare to leave the stands and sit in the front row, will have the opportunity to literally enter the mansion where two sisters, played by Anna Carreño and Gemma Deusedas, "switch each other." The actresses will walk past them and behind them—they are in their own home—and shake them with some of the many shudders and howls they unleash during the play, a "disturbing and immersive" experience with which Belbel, author of works such as After the rain (1993), In Tuscany (2007) and Lali Symon (2023), has set itself the challenge of "truly scaring" the audience.

Pep and Marta became friends with Miquel and Mamen because their daughters were best friends at school, but they reached a point where they could no longer bear it: Miquel and Mamen make and break plans without consulting them, and sometimes they are very expensive. The latest, an exclusive vacation aboard a boat. Since they don't know how to get rid of them, instead of talking civilly, Pep and Marta make a drastic decision: they tell Miquel and Mamen that they are separating. This is the starting point ofThe plans, the comedy that Yago Alonso and Eva Mor premiere this Thursday at the Teatre Gaudí. "With the play, we wanted to talk about everything: the relationship with other children's parents and the relationship between parents and children. And also about the pressure we put on ourselves as parents, the pressure our children put on us when they reach a certain age, when they start interacting with other children at school, forcing their parents to interact." Yago Alonso, who also directs the production.