The Teatre Romea hosts this summer one of the standout proposals of Grec 2025: Gegant, an adaptation of Mark Rosenblatt's text that premiered in London's West End and now arrives in Barcelona with Josep Maria Pou leading a solid and precise cast. The production, directed by Josep Maria Mestres, offers a theatrical immersion that unfolds in a single space and in real time, and directly challenges the audience with a debate as uncomfortable as it is (unfortunately) current: can the work be separated from the author? What if the author is brilliant but has expressed reprehensible opinions? Is cancellation justice or revenge? In short, nothing that is not fully current.
The play places us in August 1983, in the living room of Roald Dahl, a writer of planetary fame, recognized for his children's books but also for recent public statements that have put him at the center of controversy. Following an anti-Semitic article, critical voices have risen strongly, and Dahl (overwhelmed but proud, cynical but lucid) receives a visit from representatives of the Jewish community, an editor, and a lawyer, who intend to make him reconsider and obtain an apology. Thus begins a dialectical battle in which the protagonist, a giant in talent but fragile in conscience, defends himself, attacks, manipulates, and bares himself. There is no external action, but it is not necessary: the underlying conflict is of high moral intensity.
Josep Maria Pou delivers a prodigious, contained, and powerfully charismatic performance. Without the need for grand gestures, Pou imposes a stage presence that encompasses everything: irony, fragility, pride, contempt, and pain. His Dahl is an ambiguous but fascinating character, whom the text never treats with condescension, but neither with moral stoning. It is precisely in this balance, between condemnation and understanding, that the play becomes poignant. The actor is accompanied by reliable names such as Victòria Pagès, Pep Planas, and Clàudia Benito, who bring nuances and tension to each line.
Josep Maria Mestres' direction opts for a sober staging, focused on word and space. The action takes place in a room in Dahl's house (recreated in great detail), and it is there that the verbal combat unfolds with an intelligence that does not renounce either sarcasm or pain. The use of real time, without jumps or narrative artifices, gives density to the work and forces the viewer to remain immersed in the discussion, almost as if they themselves were part of the encounter.
And yet, this same (and meritorious) sobriety can cause the work to lose rhythm or dramatic intensity at times. The tension does not have too many outbursts, truly cathartic moments. Sometimes a more emotional spark is missed, a rupture that breaks the dialectic and opens a real crack in the soul of the characters. Perhaps the containment is deliberate, but this commitment to intelligence somewhat limits the visceral impact of the proposal. It is also worth asking whether the text does not end up being slightly paternalistic. The debate on cancellation is presented with an almost pedagogical clarity, but with little ambiguity. The play does not intend to absolve Dahl, but to present him as a contradictory human being, like everyone else. I already came with a formed opinion, and I left doubly convinced: the work belongs to the author, but it is not the author. Nor vice versa.
In short, Gegant is a solid, intense, and timely piece of theatrical architecture. It is not a comfortable work, nor does it pretend to be. But neither is it pamphleteering or indoctrinating: it is an intelligent invitation to think, to doubt, to look in the mirror of human contradictions. And if it also does so with a Josep Maria Pou, now far from minor political film roles, the result becomes even more gigantic.