Joel Juan was crying. He was crying as he said hello. Tears brought on, we don't know, by Sonia's final monologue about boundless resilience and faith in the afterlife, or by the emotional release he felt after an hour and a half journey with the eight characters of Uncle Vanya by Chekhov.

After eight years of sharing laughs with the two of them Escape room and The great comedianJoel Joan (Barcelona, ​​1970) takes a 180-degree turn in his theatrical career and faces not only a dramatic role, not only a 19th-century Russian classic, but a major theatrical challenge: to play all the characters himself in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. From February 24 to March 22, the Argentinian Nelson Valente directs this updated and concentrated version of that rural drama, a work by Simon Stephens, at the Teatro Romea (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) which starred Andrew Scott at the National Theatre in London (the hot priest from the series Fleabag) and earned him critical acclaim and awards.