There's a question that the company Application Rejected asked itself: "Wouldn't it be great if Macbeth's witches had a punk band?" Well, not only is it a "cool" idea, but this premise has become Hora Bruixa, a proposal that breaks the mold of Barcelona's theater scene to offer us a ritual of punk, distortion, and a lot of political rage.
Under the direction of Charlie Mills and Jana Serra, the play presents us with the three witches from Shakespeare's classic, but forget about the robes and Scottish mist. Here we find them on an eternal tour, starring in a theatrical concert that covers the most powerful moments of female resistance in history: from Salem to RiotGrrrl, passing through the textile workers of our home.
Hora Bruixa: A punk band with Shakespeare's witches
Paula Castillo, Natàlia Mas, and Marta Niell embody these witch-musicians who learned to play their instruments from scratch for the play (a titanic effort that is evident in the energy on stage). Between songs, they show us a new version of Shakespeare's witches. In the playwright's work, Macbeth's witches are secondary, evil, and manipulative characters who lead the protagonist to perdition. They are "the bad guys" who act from the shadows. But here, they grab the microphone and become the protagonists.
They explain to us that they are not "bad," but women who resist. They use the pauses between songs to deliver monologues or dialogues where they rewrite what happened in Macbeth (and in the history of women in general) from their point of view. But on this journey, they are not alone: they have a manager, a figure who represents control and order, creating a strong tension between their desire for freedom and the chains of the system.
Aesthetics and staging: The fluorescent coven
Visually, the show is an explosion. Isa Joaniquet's lighting design uses neon and fluorescent lights that play with the duality between the magical ritual and the underground club concert. The staging, full of patches and textures, shows us a "do it yourself" aesthetic that is pure punk. The moment of the steaming cauldron is, perhaps, the only visual concession to tradition, but filtered through a psychedelic vision that makes us feel part of a ritual.
Furthermore, the parallel between witchcraft and the 80s punk movement is brilliant: both have been stigmatized as "dangerous" for their ability to shake up the established order.
Anti-capitalist feminism
Hora Bruixa sends a very clear message: feminism is only real if it is anti-capitalist. It denounces how the system appropriates women's struggle and turns it into a consumer product (such as, for example, the infinite beauty and skincare routines that are so popular today...). This discourse materializes on stage through the manager, who acts as the symbol of capitalism in charge of taming the witches' rage. We see powerful women shouting truths against patriarchy, but who have to submit to the orders of a figure who commodifies them.
The interpretation: Naturalness and rage
The work of Paula Castillo, Natàlia Mas and Marta Niell is sincere and honest. Learning to play instruments from scratch for a production is a declaration of intent: attitude and truth matter more than technical virtuosity (even so, they play very well!). The proposal is brilliant in the moments of comedy and self-parody; the actresses know how to laugh at themselves, and that creates a very direct connection with the audience that relaxes the tension of the political cry.
A fragmented structure
If we had to point out a weak point, it would be the narrative cohesion. The play works as a succession of gags, scenes and songs with a lot of individual strength, but which sometimes struggle to find a solid common thread. This fragmentation means that, towards the end, the rhythm can feel a bit repetitive. Even so, it could be argued that this lack of narrative "cleanliness" is a decision to maintain the punk spirit and shy away from more academic theatrical structures.
Hora Bruixa is an original, brave and very necessary proposal. It is a breath of fresh air for Barcelona's billboard, a play that does not ask for permission and that uses punk as a tool for critical thinking. A concert-ritual that invokes the ghosts of the past to make us think about the demons of the present. Pure resistance to the rhythm of the guitar!