Oriol Pla occupies his space and devours it in "Gola"

It is a proposal of clown, music, and theater that invites us to reflect on our desires, our authentic essence, and our personality. Oriol Pla gives us a whole exhibition of his interpretive talent, with a physical movement that leaves us open-mouthed and makes us go from laughter to despair and tenderness.

A sample of the enormous talent of this scenic beast that moves us with its vulnerability. "Hasn't it gone on too long?", "Shall we do our song?". It makes you want to hug him tightly and, incidentally, also embrace that more vulnerable part that we all have within us.

Gola, a piece that talks about the vice of devouring life

The show begins with the protagonist, played by Oriol Pla, apologizing. He apologizes to his father, to his mother, to the people of the Institut del Teatre, to the dancers, to the musicians... He apologizes to everyone before starting his show, and he is about to occupy his space and, in it, he will do whatever he wants.

The story of Gola revolves around a machine that sells sweets; the typical machine we find in hospitals, in subways, and that sells everything from Donuts to bananas, soft drinks, and chocolate. What do we want? What do we feel like eating? After a while of ruminating, in the end, the Donut is chosen. It's hard to know what we want, but we end up getting it: we want to eat that sugar Donut we see up there on the machine. We put in the coin, but the machine fails and the product gets stuck.

From here, the character's catharsis begins who, although he already knows what he wants to eat, encounters a large number of problems to achieve his goal: eating the Donut. He talks to Jesus (yes, like God, but, in this piece, embodied by the machine technician), waits for solutions, Jesus offers him other options and, in the end, he ends up accepting them by force.

He wanted the Donut, but it seems life has other plans; so he conforms and accepts the exchange, he accepts it desperately, gluttonously, forcibly. He will eat the leftovers that life gives him, when he was very clear that what he wanted was a simple Donut.

Laughter, reflection and humanity

"What have they done to you?". This is the question the character asks us from the stage, a question that, personally, impacted me. He tells us that if, instead of "adult" people, the stands were made up of boys and girls, they would all be running, free, letting themselves go. Instead, we are there, stiff, with a self-control and conformity that seems that the years have forced us to digest. What have they done to us?, I ask myself now.

Oriol Pla occupies his space, as he anticipates at the beginning of the show, and he devours it. And he does it literally. The set design is simple: the vending machine, a chair, a cart with a live musician and food, a lot of food, food he doesn't want, but that is there and that he ends up accepting.

The expressiveness, both physical and gestural, that Oriol Pla has makes us laugh a lot, a whole lot. And it makes us see how the clown is more alive than ever. We need the clown, we need this language that speaks to us of humanity, of vulnerability and of the madness that life sometimes is, without needing grandiloquent words or convoluted stories. Here, with a single character and a single conflict, we manage to understand many things and connect with theater from another perspective.

Gola is a marvel. Because it makes us laugh, because it makes us think and because seeing Oriol Pla work live and direct is moving and gives you goosebumps. We live life too desperately and, perhaps, it is time to really listen to what we want and rest a little.