What's better for us: to know family secrets or to without knowing every detail about our parents' private lives? Is it better to live knowing the whole truth or is it preferable to look at the world through the veil they have built for us? That's the premise behind Consulta familiar is built, the new production from El Maldà as part of Grec 2026 which, furthermore, will be the play with which the new 2026/27 season will begin.
Marga Arrom is the playwright of this funny musical comedy, directed by Alba Collado and starring by Núria Cuyàs, Laura Pau and Annabel Totusaus.
Mothers, daughters and family secrets
Consulta familiar begins in a psychologist's office. Sílvia is the patient, a young woman who lost her father six months ago and who now, on the eve of Christmas, dreads the Christmas celebrations, not because of her father's absence, but because of her mother's overwhelming presence.
The relationship between mother and daughter has never been good and, now that the father is gone, the mother's criticisms are increasingly fierce and brutal. Sílvia doesn't think she can endure any more of her mother's reproaches this year; reproaches about her job, about her partner, about her way of dressing... But her mother's secrets are about to explode.
In the consultation, we also meet the therapist, a psychologist who seems to be a appears to have her life together, the kind of success Sílvia's mother would want for her daughter. But not all that glitters is gold, and the therapist also hides a family problem that is causing her great anxiety: she hasn't had sex with her husband for ten months, she has become a cactus, a living being easy to care for, but which, if you get too close, pricks and hurts.
And the third leg of this comedy of errors is the mother, a strong woman, with personality and a bit of a rebel: she smokes, drinks and jokes with her friend. But she doesn't know that a secret from her past has just exploded and, in fact, has gone viral. A secret that breaks with this whole image of a "respectable woman" and shows a different and transgressive facet of her.
A funny comedy with musical touches
The production we see at Maldà is fun, light, and warm. It is a play that makes the audience smile throughout the entire performance, accompanying these three women who try to be grown women in a life where fun seems to have taken a back seat. Too often, maturity is linked to the misconception of boredom, responsibilities, and a dull life; and maturity can also be lived laughing, enjoying, and reconnecting with the purest and most carnal pleasure.
During the show, the three actresses intersperse dramatic scenes with musical numbers that add a more comic and relaxed touch to the production. Sensual choreographies that enhance the message read between the lines: the need to enjoy a full and satisfying intimate life, whether you're a mother, a daughter or a grandmother.
Fun and humorous interpretations
Núria Cuyàs, Laura Pau, and Annabel Totusaus take on the three main roles with wonderful on-stage chemistry. Their interpretations embrace the comic register, with deliberately exaggerated moments (both in drama and seduction) that fit perfectly with the tone of the show.
The musical numbers also work very well thanks to good diction, solid voices, and precise choreographies. But, beyond the humor, the three actresses manage to make the audience empathize with their characters and with the contradictions of the mother-daughter relationship. Because loving your mother doesn't stop her from driving you mad from time to time.
Marga Arrom, Mallorcan playwright
Consulta familiar is a play written by Magda Arrom, a writer from Palma de Mallorca who has trained with some of today's leading playwrights such as Helena Tornero, Carlos Be, or Marc Martí. She won the X Torneig de Dramaturgia de les Illes Balears with her text Sa planta i es forrar and the third combat of the XIV Torneig de Dramaturgia de Temporada Alta with Ingredient especial.
It is the first time she has staged a production in Barcelona and the venue has been El Maldà, a space where in 2025 she did a dramatized reading of the text presented at Temporada Alta. And it is not the first venue to champion contemporary Balearic playwriting; in fact, the Beckett Summer Workshop of this 2026 also featured staged readings by Balearic authors under the banner of The showcase of new Balearic dramaturgy and which has featured names such as Maria Garalve, Sergio Baos, Josep R. Cerdá or Pau Coya.
Consulta familiar is a engaging production hat explores family, secrets and the right to pleasure that all human beings have. A topic that, even in the 21st century, continues to be a great taboo, especially within the family.