presentación de primavera

Dear audience,
 

I once read that history is the scientific way in which we understand our collective memory, and that it basically consists of two kinds of materials: documents and monuments. So after rejecting monumental theatre, we immerse ourselves in its documentary equivalent. And so we are beginning to prepare much of this spring. There has been a tendency to create “monumental works” in the theatre over the last 75 years, while overlooking the substantial part of the performing arts in themselves: ephemeral art. Nothing lasts forever. And with the transformational power of the here and now, and by listening carefully to our society, we are building this spring - after a year of pandemic; a year that has weighed heavily on us all. We are living through historic times, which

are sometimes too dark, and theatre must be contemporary, and illuminate this darkness.
 

At the same time, the pandemic is revealing a new Teatre Lliure, which is not only a cultural space as an institution, but is also a social and educational one. And even a space for health. It is a space for emotional return, a centre for interpreting realities where we share our concerns as a community, and seek ways to take care of the people around us.

Care must be detached from economic impoverishment or the lack of social recognition. “Taking care of” is the first step in reconstruction which perhaps we should consider when the dark tunnel of the pandemic comes to an end. And theatre is the best place for sharing, discussion, consideration, debating issues, educating in ideas - which can shed some light without ever finding the answers to those questions! That is why this programme that warns us ultimately also enlightens us, with productions including Las  canciones [The songs], in which listening exerts a power that is as real as it is hypnotic, and El bar que se tragó a todos los españoles [The bar that swallowed all the Spaniards], which deals with the possibility of changing one’s life, country and worldview... and  Forasters vindran... [Foreigners will come...], which tells the story of various generations who have made this change during migration. That is why 23 F Anatomia d’un instant [23 F Anatomy of a moment] takes us back to the recent past, to be able to begin to look at the dark side of Spain’s transition to democracy; Frank talks to younger audiences about the absurd feeling of considering oneself superior due to being different from others; I només jo vaig escapar-ne [ESCAPED ALONE] presents us with an apocalyptic view of a world that is no longer unknown to us, based on the clairvoyance of the people who have lived the longest, while ARCAS 2020 is set in the future, and focuses on the our species’ resistance in the present in an alternative ecosystem created by the generations to come.
 

We are continuing with our cultural and digital activities during the spring. And on the horizon, we can begin to glimpse all of us being able to meet again, regularly rather than sporadically, at the Lliure. Which is somewhere that curiously has never been as open as it is now, in an era of lockdowns.

This spring will be a time of hope and at the same time, a warning cry. Which is precisely the role we must play as a theatre.

 

Juan Carlos Martel Bayod

Director of Fundació Teatre Lliure / Teatre Públic de Barcelona