On Sant Antoni Abat street, between Plaça del Padró and Sant Antoni Market, Barcelona's performing arts have recovered a stage: the Teatre del Raval. After a comprehensive renovation, the space reopens with a double commitment that combines memory and contemporaneity: two renovated halls and a new artistic direction led by Pep Tosar and Evelyn Arévalo.
The reopening goes beyond a symbolic gesture and is projected as a repositioning within Barcelona's cultural ecosystem. Founded in 1930, in the midst of the Republic, the theater has gone through various stages of the city and is now reactivated with the aim of recovering an active role in contemporary creation and exhibition. The acquisition of the license by Tosar and Arévalo's company in September 2024 was the starting point of this transformation.
It is not a minor undertaking. Tosar, with a consolidated career as an actor, director, and producer, has developed a scenic language closely linked to literary adaptation and biographical portraits—from Federico García Lorca to Fernando Pessoa or Miguel Hernández—while Arévalo, trained at the Institut del Teatre, has developed her own career as a playwright, director, and producer, in addition to collaborating closely on the company's dramaturgy. Together, under the umbrella of Oblideu-vos de nosaltres, they have built a recognizable creative universe, with a clear vocation for authorship and continuity.
"The theater will deploy a line that combines its own production with the hosting of projects that often fall outside the more conventional circuits"
The new project pivots on two halls that function as a declaration of intent. On the one hand, the Sala Tadeusz Kantor, with 193 seats and an Italian-style layout, has been completely remodeled to bring the stage closer to the audience, incorporating new technology and improving acoustics and visibility. On the other hand, the Espai Damià Huguet introduces a more intimate scale: 50 seats in a literary cabaret format to host proximity shows and small-format concerts, in an environment that also acts as an exhibition space dedicated to the Mallorcan poet.
The program will kick off on May 12 with Federico García, directed by Tosar and co-written with Arévalo, a piece that revisits the life and work of Federico García Lorca and returns to Barcelona ten years after its premiere at the Grec. From there, the theater will deploy a line that combines its own production with the hosting of projects that often fall outside the more conventional circuits, such as Léon a la tierra de los hombres, inspired by the universe of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
More than just text theater, the program also incorporates a desire to open up to other audiences and languages. The first season will include family proposals such as L'impossibilista, by Sergi Buka, as well as a strong commitment to live music. In this sense, the La gran Blue Nit cycle aims to position the space as a stage for artists linked to the city, and will kick off with Elisabet Raspall, who will present her new work Aletheia, recognized at the Enderrock Awards. This approach responds to a fundamental idea: the Teatre del Raval is not conceived only as a container for shows, but as an artistic platform. The project of the Oblideu-vos de nosaltres company—promoted by Tosar and Arévalo—articulates this vision through its own creation and production, but also through support for like-minded companies and creators, configuring a space with identity and criteria. With this new stage, the Teatre del Raval not only recovers its activity, but redefines its role within the city's cultural map: that of a space that aspires to be a platform for creation, a refuge for unique projects, and a loudspeaker for new scenic narratives in Barcelona.Add The New Barcelona Post as your preferred Google source for free
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