2023-12-27 21:32:00
With the last days of the year, lists of the best and worst of the year become inevitable; Of the latter, it is better not to remember. First of all, yes, to return to memory happy moments lived, in this case, in a stalls. Spanish theater is going through uncertain times, but talent continues to emerge and choosing ten productions (from those seen on ABC) continues to be an arduous task, absolutely personal and always unfair. Each viewer will have their own list, which does not necessarily have to coincide with this one; for tastes, colors. In any case, and although not all of them are there, they are all who are and these ten functions (the order does not matter) have sufficient merits to be in it.
1 Prima facie
In August, this shocking monologue by Australian Suzie Miller was released, the stark and vulnerably distressing story of a human being, a woman, whose dignity has been trampled on and whose life and professional career has been cut short. A determining factor is the exceptional performance of actress Vicky Luengo. It is difficult to talk about ‘work’ in this case because the actress’s commitment to the text and to her character is absolute. She fills it with colors, feelings, emotion… in short, truth. She always navigates with the rudder of the work firmly, and makes the alchemy of the theater occur.
2
Forever
The Basque company Kulunka Teatro has once again hit the nail on the head, even more so than on other occasions, with ‘Forever’, where they once again opt for mask theater and telling the story without words, solely through gesture, of image and music. And the bet is clearly a winner, because the Basque company presents a show of both tenderness and final harshness through a story that is both everyday and moving, as emotional as it is disturbing. Theatre, nothing more and nothing less.
3 The wars of our ancestors
New theatrical approach to the novel by Miguel Delibes, published in 1975, a work in which the author, wrote ABC theater critic Diego Doncel, “speaks of that secular violence that runs through the spirit of Spain, of violence and machismo like that collective determinism that runs through our history since the Carlist wars, the African war and the civil war. Directed by Claudio Tolcachir and starring Carmelo Gómez – who was accompanied on stage by Miguel Hermoso – the performance of the Leonese actor is one of the best works that have been seen on stage in recent years.
4 The sea: vision of children who have never seen it
Alberto Conejero and Xavier Bobés came together to tell the story of Antoni Benaiges, a school teacher who, on the eve of the civil war, taught Freinet techniques in a town in Burgos, Bañuelos de Bureba, and who was murdered by Falangist militiamen at the beginning. of the Spanish Civil War. They do it through the poetry of words and the theater of objects. Diego Doncel wrote: “Visual narration reaches moments of true beauty, of that emotion that things have when they are loaded with the weight of life, when they become symbols, emblems through which the past speaks.”
5 Decline
Steven Berkoff is one of the most prominent figures on the British scene in recent decades. At La Abadía, one of his most applauded works was presented, ‘Decadence’ (1981), of which its adapter, Benjamín Prado, Steven Berkoff, said that “it is a caustic, provocative work that pursues the public, corners it and often “It forces him to laugh so as not to cry.” The production was promoted by Maru Valdivielso, herself the interpreter of it along with Pedro Casablanc. “‘Decadence’ is a work without any hint of mercy, that is, where the only mercy is solved with the pants down, the lover in top shape and feeling the warmth of a good checking account,” said Diego Doncel.
6 Ramón María del Valle Inclán
In 1944, Ramón Gómez de la Serna wrote a biography of another Ramón, Valle-Inclán, and from there Xavier Albertí created a musical show in which he wove a portrait of both writers from the text. The magnificent interpretation of Pedro Casablanc, a conjurer of words and gestures, gave brilliance to this unique and magnetic production.
7 Falsestuff
Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs – and that is why ‘Falsestuff’ is on this list – have managed to shake up the Spanish scene in recent years with their theater and form a more or less large group of followers. Imagination, shamelessness and casualness are, along with an overflowing talent, the main weapons of his works. In ‘Falsestuff’, said Diego Doncel, “confidence is not lacking, neither is the sense of humor nor the stage successes, there are three hours where the stage becomes an unpredictable game, where the genres follow one another in an original conglomerate: from the purely choreographic to western, from thriller to video creation”, but sometimes it also dies of success.
8 All love songs
The Barcelona actor Eduard Fernández does not go on stage as frequently as would be desirable. But this year he did it to perform ‘All the love songs’, a monologue by the Argentine Santiago Loza, directed by Andrés Lima, which was more than just a play. It was the posthumous hug that the actor gave to his mother, who died during the pandemic, and to whom he could not say goodbye as they were confined. His merit in the performance was to hide behind his character but appear to remain perfectly recognizable. Eduard Fernández does it with a perfect balance between technique and emotion, to achieve a dazzling work.
9 Courage, grievance and woman
Several circumstances came together to make the premiere of ‘Valor, grievance and woman’ a special event. Firstly, it meant the recovery of an author, Ana Caro de Mallén (1590-1646), and of a text that shows a robust author, with mastery of the craft and theatrical architecture and a very high literary quality, of which only Time will tell if it should be added to the canon or not. In addition, he discovered a sensitive and elegant director, Beatriz Argüello (an actress with a long career in our golden theater) who built a show of great finesse.
10 The comedy of errors
Albert Boronat made a very free version of the work that William Shakespeare wrote based on Plautus; a messy comedy based on misunderstandings, on which Andrés Lima proposed a show as hooligan as it was effective, as overwhelming as it was absurd, as ingenious as it was shameless, with an infernal rhythm, which forced its six performers – Pepón Nieto, Antonio Pagudo, Fernando Soto, Rulo Pardo, Avelino Piedad and Esteban Garrido – to do acting work closer to bobbin lace than to acting. A delicious prank.
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