Like most ordinary people, I was unaware that a "jàssera" (says Alcover-Moll) is a "thick beam, placed horizontally to support other beams or heavy construction pieces"; and even less that, in theater jargon, the "jàssera" refers to the space in front of the stage where technicians, actors, and other animals move from one side to another. But from now on, the Jàssera will always be capitalized, because above all it will refer to a small theater bookstore on Calle de les Sitges in Ciutat Vella (where the old Partisano store used to be), very close to Juanjo González Rubiera's esteemed Caribbean cocktail bar. The invention in question is the work of theater director Ferran Utzet, who has remodeled this family premises, transforming it into a very cozy literary den, where you can find dramaturgy in abundance... and a small reserved area under construction, ideal for plotting unforeseen events.
"A country's capital like Barcelona should have a temple of the spoken word"After having seen how theater bookstores disappeared from the city and the neighborhood (the most obvious example is Millà on Sant Pau Street, which preserves its splendid ancestral sign... but has ended up converted into one of these nauseating stores with blinding light where mobile phone cases are trafficked), Ferran's initiative must be celebrated with loud applause. A country's capital like Barcelona, which is also a theater city where millions of people seat their buttocks in a theater or similar scenic space week after week, had to have a temple of the spoken word, and let's hope that Jàssera ends the abnormality according to which the most popular form of literature turns out to be also the least read. We cannot ask for miracles from Utzet, but for now he has already given us a space not designed for you to buy the book you already want, but to find that book you don't yet know you should read.
My neighborhood is overflowing with people who spend all day lamenting the loss of ancestral shops and traditional businesses. Well, our director has decided to dry his tears, get off his ass, and loosen up some cash to remedy it. I beg the people of Barcelona to answer the call, because apart from being a good bookseller who will get better every day, Ferran's grace is that he knows our theatrical fabric very well. He explains to me, for example, that there are many customers who participate in amateur groups and who eagerly seek theatrical texts. Jàssera will also serve so that our splendid contemporary dramaturgy (underrepresented in the media, in terms of social relevance, important awards, and so on) has the role it deserves within the fabric of our literature and, in turn, of the imaginary of our city. Barcelona is not only theatrical; its identity is totally inseparable from our scenic letter.
As soon as I entered the bookstore, I felt tremendously comforted, especially because its owner and lord has above all Catalan and English texts, which are my two languages of approach to the world (apart from theatrical works, essays on dramaturgy can also be found). But above all, there you can hang out and talk about theater for a while with its foreman, and that is something fantastic, because chatting about the scene always involves a bit of metaphysics and a high percentage of gossip (Ferran has a secret poll, which is no longer secret, about who will be the new director of the Teatre Nacional: I voted for my dear Josep Maria Miró with my heart but, as things go in these cases, my head leaned towards Lluís Homar...). But I'm writing all this to you because Jàssera will be able to give you one of life's great pleasures; reading theater, which is the happiest way to excite the imagination and turn words into movement.
Stop by Jàssera and read theater, and thus we will turn the recklessness of its ideologue into a matter of strict normality.
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