Author: Alx Phillips

Jo dona. A Lili Elbe: a timely tribute on a troubled landscape

When the prestigious choreographer Marta Carrasco convinced Albert Hurtado, the charismatic zumba teacher at her local gym to cross-dress before a live audience at the TNC, how could he refuse? The result, the breezy performance piece Jo, dona. A Lili Elbe., a heartfelt tribute to Lili Elbe: a Danish landscape painter and transgender woman, and… Read more »

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Running for Democracy: majority and morality rule

The Teatre Nacional de Catalunya launched its new season in dramatic weather last Saturday which seemed generated for the occasion. The theatre’s pledge to open ‘a gateway to the world’ – written in bold deep-blue letters across the entrance – gave way into something more ambitious and self-aware: that vast spacey lobby that you feel… Read more »

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It Don’t Worry Me: the Anatomy of Theatre

In March 2016 propagandists, located (according to Google Analytics) in Saint Petersburg, infiltrated my blog lookingfordrama.com. ‘Vote Trump!’ They urged on a number of posts about Catalan theatre productions. Of course it’s nice to receive any comments, but it was disconcerting that having perused my online persona (courtesy of Facebook) my unwanted guests would have… Read more »

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Mal Pelo’s mountain, truth & paradise

In this age of heavy words lightly thrown, the excellent contemporary dance troupe Mal Pelo offer a beautifully-wrought farce, a caustic yet sincere solo, performed by Pep Ramis, that counts on the input of playwright and theatre director Jordi Casanovas and French/Catalan physical theatre troupe Baró d’evel. Through 60 minutes we follow Ramis on his… Read more »

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Jetse Batelaan: a whole new story

Photo courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia / A Avezzù

Amidst the chaos: injustices, strikes, rabid press reports, soaring temperatures and prices, it’s hard to know what to do with the kids. Do we take them to the aquarium (of dubious ethics), the zoo (worse), a football match (potentially inciting a negative spirit of rivalry), or leave them locked in their rooms to play violent… Read more »

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Abans que es faci fosc: multiple universes

Abans que es faci fosc - photo: David Ruano

This Catalan adaptation of British playwright Hattie Naylor’s multilayered play Going Dark is an understated yet cosmically ambitious production that transforms the Espai Lliure into a planetarium; a claustrophobic yet mentally expansive dark space, where the wonders of the universe are projected onto a stage dressed up as moon’s surface. With significantly fewer resources than… Read more »

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Falaise: the contemporary voice of Baró d’Evel

Falaise by Baró d'evel

The circus and performing arts troupe Baró d’evel, formed by the award-winning French/Catalan duo Camille Decourtye and Blaï Mateu Trias, expands its repertoire with a smart and sophisticated production for eight human performers, one white horse and a flock of pigeons. Falaise, that premiered at Barcelona’s Grec festival in July, is the second half of… Read more »

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Minefield / Campo Minado: theatre of war by Lola Arias

Minefield / Campo Minado is a bilingual theatre piece that reunites Argentine and British veterans from the Falklands/Malvinas war nearly four decades on. The production premiered in London in 2016 in the run up to the Brexit referendum. Looking for Drama spoke to its creator, Lola Arias, about the project, its impact and its relevance… Read more »

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Split – Lucy Guerin Inc.

Grec Festival offers a great opportunity to experience a work by the Australian choreographer Lucy Guerin. For nearly 20 years, this Adelaide-born choreographer has been a reference point in contemporary dance, working out of Melbourne’s sophisticated and individualistic independent dance scene. Split, the word implying a forced, irreversible division, works on levels that are personal,… Read more »

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