Teatre Lliure – Barcelona until September 29, 2013 The scene is set like a graveyard for dead baggage. A conveyor belt-cum-catwalk splits the stage, churning out luggage at varying speeds and quantities, some shrink-wrapped, some fancy, some battered and broken; without address tags or flight information, they seem mysteriously to vanish once they drop off… Read more »
Author: Alx Phillips
WHAT’S ON? Tragèdies Romanes (Roman Tragedies) Toneelgroep Amsterdam
Teatre Lliure Montjuic, July 6th – 7th, 2013 With the Egyptian mess splashed all over the media, you don’t need to have read William Shakespeare’s triple-political-whammy of Roman tragedies, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, in any language, to feel a familiar sense of involvement yet distance, shock yet predictability, a sense of being… Read more »
REVIEW: L’Onada (The Wave) dir. Marc Montserrat Drukker
Since time immemorial emotional impact has meant more than logic. More exciting, more dynamic and more persuasive than its grumbling counterpart – that harps on about niggling things, like fact and detail, profundity and practicality – it is ‘impulse’ or, euphemistically speaking, ‘intuition’ that packs the punch behind instant big decisions. Thus, we spent thousands… Read more »
WHAT’S ON? Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, dir. David Selvas
After the phenomenal success of A Dolls House (1879), Hedda Gabler (1891) by Norwegian master playwright Henrik Ibsen, didn’t go down that well with late 19th century audiences. Instead of overtly attacking the establishment, most particularly the crappy controlled lives of women, Hedda was considered an arrogant, power-crazed, unfeeling figure – a study in mental illness,… Read more »
REVIEW: L’Estranger (L’Étranger – The Stranger) by Albert Camus, dir. Carles Alfaro
A surprisingly effective dramatization of Albert Camus‘ unsettling little novel L’Étranger (1942) (The Stranger in English, L’Estranger in Catalan) puts existential angst back on the table. Adapted by Rodolf Sirera and Carles Alfaro, who directed the play at the Gràcia Lliure theatre in Barcelona, L’Estranger is staged with perfect simplicity. The setting throughout the single-act performance is the prison cell from… Read more »
REVIEW: Don Giovanni – Teatro Real (Madrid)
A mafia-esque setting for a Teatro Real (Madrid) co-production of Mozart’s blinding opera, Don Giovanni, raises disturbing questions about the alleged ‘virtue’ of the other characters… Don Giovanni is based on the old morality tale of the inveterate womanizer, whose past catches up with him with supernatural drama. The play version was first plumed by Spaniard Tirso de… Read more »
WHAT’S BACK ON? El Principi d’Arquimedes
Another chance to see this cool play at La Villarroel theatre in Barcelona, until May 5th. In the 3rd century BCE, Archimedes, a Greek mathematician and engineer, invented a precise means of measuring the density of an irregular object. He found that a body immersed in a fluid experiences a upwards force in contra that… Read more »
REVIEW: Si No Ens Paguen, No Paguem! Teatre de l’Enjòlit
Si no ens paguen, no paguem! (Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!) is a satirical family drama written in 1974 by Nobel prize-winning Italian Dario Fo. In the play, two working class housewives resort to robbery as a means of feeding their poorly paid husbands at a time of economic stress. In this entertaining, updated Catalan version,… Read more »
REVIEW: La Vida es Sueño (Life is a Dream)- Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (Madrid 1600 – 1681) poet, playwright, Roman Catholic priest and soldier was an all-round kinda guy. A contemporary of the painter Diego Velázquez and the writer Miguel de Cervantes (creator of madcap adventurer Don Quixote), his life ended with that of a period of Spanish history called the Golden Age, a time… Read more »
REVIEW: Dispara / Agafa Tresor / Repeteix dir. Josep Maria Mestres
Seven interconnected mini-plays, selected and reshuffled from the 16 that comprise Shoot / Get Treasure / Repeat, bring coherence and resonance to Mark Ravenhill‘s satirical text, that explores the effects of war on our personal relationships and public lives. Directed by Josep Maria Mestres and staged at Barcelona’s Teatre Lliure, Dispara / Agafa Tresor / Repeteix is an unflinching, funny and… Read more »