Far away West

This summer, El Grec festival takes audiences on a journey to Australia and America. The aim of artistic director Cesc Casadesús is to combine new proposals with names that are not recognised in Barcelona but backed by their talent and international career. The idea has also been to bring in artists from both sides of the map. For example, there is a co-production between La Gleva and the New York-based La Mama Theater companies. El Grec this year kicked off strong and made an early start, once again in the shadows of the summer solstice at the end of June. The first night of the festival offered strong emotions to the sound of contemporary music, with the San Francisco Kronos Quartet, the young talents of the Esmuc music school, and the visual artist Alba G. Corral. Before the performance at the Grec amphitheatre, the gardens hosted performances by students from the Esmuc.

El Grec this year also travels to new venues. For example, a recreational proposal (in the form of a bouncy castle) will be take place in the Oval Room of the MNAC national gallery (with an idea by choreographers Dana Caspersen, William Forsythe, and Joel Ryan).

Meanwhile, for the theatre festival’s most faithful viewers, there are three pearls to look forward to: Peeping Tom bring their trilogy to a close (Kind, at the TNC), Ivo van Hove returns with another monumental piece (Tan poca vida, comparable to his Toneelgroep Amsterdam company’s six-hour Roman Tragedies, according to Casadesús), while Isabelle Huppert offers audiences a monologue loaded with tension, directed by Bob Wilson (Mary Said What She Said).