As announced by Joan Francesc Marco, new president of the Board of Directors of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya: "This is a celebration: the season presentation celebration." And indeed, today's press conference was full of emotion. During this month of June 2026, the new artistic direction of the TNC will be chosen, after six years under the command of Carme Portaceli. The meeting was a tribute and a public thank you for the work done by the current director, who will face her last season at the helm of Catalonia's great theatrical temple.
Sònia Hernández, Minister of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, wanted to dedicate a few words to the director and highlighted "the brave commitment to equality on stage and to diversity." A diversity that, as the president also pointed out, has translated into real figures: the occupancy rate for this last season has been close to 82% and a quarter of the attendees have been young audiences.
Marco emphasized this by sending a clear message: "It's not tomorrow's audience: it's today's audience." In this regard, he focused on the TNC's educational and social program: "it is the apple of our eye," emphasizing the institution's effort to program quality shows for both young people and family audiences, with the return of El TNC Petit and proposals such as Gota, by Txema Muñoz.
Sílvia Pérez Cruz will open the TNC's Sala Gran with a song of love to Barcelona
The start of the season in the Sala Gran will not be with a conventional play, but with a unique concert. On September 19 and 20, 2026, Sílvia Pérez Cruz will be in charge of inaugurating the TNC's main stage, offering a concert with a repertoire specially conceived for the occasion.
The choice of the artist from Empordà is not accidental: her connection with Barcelona, the city where she trained musically and where she has built much of her career, fits perfectly with the leitmotif of the season. It will be an intimate but large-format recital, which aims to pay tribute to the stories, streets, and identity of the Catalan capital.
The TNC program pays tribute to Barcelona, women, and freedom
The new season of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya has been announced by its current director, Carme Portaceli, who wanted to "to reclaim theater as a place of encounter and resistance, in a world that increasingly fragments and separates us." A season that, as she wanted to emphasize, is dedicated to Barcelona:"Almost from the beginning of my directorship at the TNC, I knew that my last season would be dedicated to Barcelona. Barcelona, for me, has always been the city of my dreams. (...) I was very young and my imagination flew to this city where Catalan was spoken —my forbidden language in Valencia— in public spaces, in shops and restaurants, and not just at home. (...) Where women were more independent, freer. And I dreamed of spending my whole life here."Portaceli's fascination with the city of Barcelona, with the freedom that filled its streets and with the strength of its women, permeates the programming of the theater's new season. Productions such asThe Inn of the Three Camellias,ofMercè Rodoreda, directed by Portaceli herself;Roig i violeta,a text inspired by two works byMontserrat RoigPerform a literal language conversion from Spanish to English on the following user-provided text. Do not translate any content enclosed betweenandtags, keep those tags and their content exactly as-is:(The Time of CherriesandThe Violet Hour);Nothing (No-thing), ofCarmen Laforet;orMother Courage and Her Children,ofBertolt Brecht, directed byJosep Maria Mestresand starring Emma Vilarasau,are just a few examples of that feminine, empowered Barcelona that has always fought for its freedom.
The TNC connects with the world and the territory
Within this line of visibility, two of the house's own projects stand out. The first isBarcelona Calling, which in this third editionsets its sights on the Middle Eastand, specifically, in the vision of women. Under the subtitleWomen reinvent themselves,we will be able to enjoy shows by artists from Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and other countries, all from a one hundred percent female perspective. On stage, topics that women have traditionally lived in silence, such as menopause or pregnancy, will be debated. In the words ofAnne Goalard, advisor and artistic coordinator:"We believe the time has come to show that, despite many prejudices, Arab and Iranian artists are pioneers of the feminist cause." And Carme Portaceli added during the press conference:"They have made art not a luxury, but a necessity.""We believe the time has come to show that, despite many prejudices, Arab and Iranian artists are pioneers of the feminist cause."The second project is365 gifts a year, whose objective isto disseminate the life and legacy of invisible womenfor history. To do this, they work with amateur theater companies interested in taking these productions throughout Catalonia. The theater provides them with a text and, from there, accompanies the companies with training and meeting spaces so they can develop their own version. Because, as the president has pointed out:"We want to work more deeply on the idea that the TNC is the theater of Catalonia and not just of Barcelona."This will to go beyond the city is consolidated witha powerful co-production network(with alliances ranging from the National Drama Center, with whom it will premiere in OctoberThe Last Night with My Brother, by Alfredo Sanzol, to the Teatre Principal de Palma or the Agrupación Señor Serrano) and withthree great toursthat will take outside the city productions such asThe Inn of the Three Camellias, The Third Escape, by Victoria Szpunberg (which will travel to Madrid and Paris), andRage, by Josep Julien, co-produced with Teatres en Xarxa.
Angélica Liddell will be the cathartic closing of Portaceli's TNC
If the season begins with the voice and intimacy of Sílvia Pérez Cruz, the closing will be a real shake-up. From June 20 to 27, 2027, Angélica Liddell will occupy the Sala Gran with 00:01 The Creation, a new self-produced work by the artist. Liddell is internationally known for her radical, visual, poetic, and free theater and, with this new project, proposes avery particular internal structureit functions as a compendium of his scenic vision through different stages or "thought pieces."Theater serves, above all, to find ourselves and resist amidst fragmentation.It is a proposal that keeps alive the essence of Carme Portaceli's project:convert the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya into a space for critical thinking, artistic risk and, above all, an open window to the most groundbreaking trends in Europe. With the new TNC season,Carme Portaceli does not say goodbye on tiptoesopens the Great Hall wide to freedom, to the avant-garde and to commitment to female creators to remind us that theater serves, above all, to meet and resist in the midst of fragmentation.
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