A classic autumn

The Tem­po­rada Alta fes­ti­val re­tains its rev­o­lu­tion­ary and de­mand­ing for­mula: aim­ing to be ac­ces­si­ble to the whole pop­u­la­tion with a pro­gramme that does not skimp on big names, risky pro­duc­tions or con­tem­po­rary vi­sions. Fes­ti­val di­rec­tor Sal­vador Sun­yer makes it clear that he does not in­tend to ig­nore the clas­sics, since they have ad­dressed the great is­sues fac­ing hu­mankind through­out his­tory. This clas­si­cal vi­sion often adopts a per­spec­tive that ques­tions cur­rent be­hav­iour. And that might be through the myths of Iphi­ge­nia or Ulysses, Shake­speare’s Mac­beth or Mea­sure for Mea­sure, or the uni­verses of Au­rora Bertrana, Mercè Rodor­eda and Jacint Verda­guer. All of these have a di­rect link with today. It is a clas­si­cal, but not a dis­tant, vi­sion, and one that is in no way placid: “The spec­ta­tor needs to be punched in the face,” Sun­yer says. The world of art has to bring dif­fer­ent vi­sions to today’s world - “not recipes,” he says - and build a world more crit­i­cal of power.

The fes­ti­val be­gins with two re­vi­sions of Shake­speare, in Girona and Salt, both on the open­ing night of the of­fi­cial in­au­gu­ra­tion, Oc­to­ber 11: Mea­sure by mea­sure, by the Royal Shake­speare Com­pany - this leg­endary the­atre com­pany has not graced the fes­ti­val since its King Lear in 2002, al­though it did bring a much ac­claimed The Can­ter­bury tales to the TNC in 2006 - and Mac­bettu by Sar­din­ian Alessan­dro Serra. In the for­mer, Shake­speare speaks of jus­tice and the fact that those who ad­min­is­ter it make it work in their favour, and in the lat­ter the Bard re­flects on power, two themes that, al­though writ­ten 500 years ago, re­main valid today.

Of the 97 shows at the fes­ti­val, 27 are in­ter­na­tional and the oth­ers are local pro­duc­tions. The Tem­po­rada Alta re­tains its de­sire to be the ref­er­ence au­tumn the­atre fes­ti­val in south­ern Eu­rope and give vis­i­bil­ity to local artists, while en­abling co­pro­duc­tions with other the­atres. The lat­ter in­cludes La mort i la pri­mav­era, di­rected by Joan Ollé with the TNC; the chore­og­ra­phy Trama, by Roser López Es­pinosa; Par­adisos oceànics (Grec); and Livealone (Fira Tàrrega).

Re­turn­ing to the fes­ti­val are Thomas Os­ter­meier (in his Re­tour à Reïms, he re­flects on how it is pos­si­ble that for­mer left-wing vot­ers now opt for ex­treme right-wing pop­ulism), Chris­tiane Jatahy (in O agora que demora she turns Ulysses into an im­mi­grant adrift at sea), Clau­dio Tol­cachir (Próximo), the Mex­i­cans La­gar­ti­jas Tiradas al Sol (Tula), the duo Sha­day Lar­ios and Jomi Oligor (who in La melan­colía del tur­ista ques­tion the need to be a tourist at all, even if most crit­i­cism is re­served for mass tourism), Ser­gio Blanco (Ostia, which ad­dresses his re­la­tion­ship with his ac­tress sis­ter) and Lithuan­ian Os­karas Ko­r­suno­vas (with A man from Podolsk). There are also new names, such as Por­tuguese Tiago Ro­drigues (Sopro), and TG Stan’s col­lec­tive work is pre­sented through Harold Pin­ter’s Be­trayal.

An­gel­ica Lid­dell also re­turns. With the mys­ti­cal phase of Gen­e­sis 6, 6-7 now be­hind her, she comes back with a dark, pow­er­ful piece about the death of her mother: Una cos­tilla sobre la mesa: Madre, which the un­clas­si­fi­able El Niño de Elche also plays a part in. Other no­table names in­clude Is­rael Galván (El amor brujo); M.A.R., by An­drea Díaz; and Iphi­ge­nia en Val­le­cas, which (in a sim­i­lar way to Ser­gio Blanco’s Kas­san­dra last year) de­picts girls in the Madrid supradis­trict as the ex­cluded ones of the Greek clas­sic.

As for local pro­duc­tions, some of the more risky works are those by Àlex Rigola (re­turn­ing this year with a work that delves deep into the shadow of can­cer), Sol Picó (Red room), Marta Car­rasco (Jo, dona), Ca­boSan­Roque (Di­mo­nis, based on the ex­or­cisms prac­ticed by Jacint Verda­guer), Car­lota Subirós (Gr­rrls, a drama on fem­i­nist man­i­festos from the 20th and 21st cen­turies), Jordi Oriol (Eu­ropa bull, Quim Masó Prize), Xir­riq­ui­teula (Laika, BBVA The­atre Award 2019) and El Conde de Tor­refiel (Kul­tur, an ex­plicit piece on pornog­ra­phy). In par­al­lel, we find pieces that have al­ready been per­formed at the Grec Fes­ti­val, such as Jerusalem, Nenes i nens, Una gossa en un descam­pat, and Veus que no veus. Full houses are ex­pected for Hits, by Tri­ci­cle, at the Girona Au­di­to­rium (five shows from Oc­to­ber 10 to 13) and the umpteenth per­for­mance of El petit príncep by Àngel Llàcer and Manu Guix.

The fes­ti­val is look­ing to give im­pe­tus to new au­di­ences by ex­pand­ing its pro­mo­tion to schools this year (the aim is to sur­pass last year’s total of 9,000 spec­ta­tors). This in­cludes the launch of the pro­gramme Ar­te­ria, an ini­tia­tive which aims to at­tract young peo­ple under 30 (all tick­ets at €10) with shows that ad­dress their con­cerns (for ex­am­ple, Livealone, Chinabum and Porn is on).

This year’s short pro­mo­tional video was shot on one of the FFGC trains and in­cludes a yel­low rib­bon painted on one of the wag­ons. Sun­yer ended the pre­sen­ta­tion by stat­ing that if the legal sit­u­a­tion does not change a seat will be left free for each po­lit­i­cal pris­oner and ex­iled politi­cian at each perfo rmance. Sadly, an­other clas­sic el­e­ment of re­cent years.

THE­ATRE