At home, we are recalcitrant enemies of the metaphorical tyranny so typical of catalanor and, perhaps for that reason, this servant almost suffered a heart attack when –barely having started reading Julio Manrique's project for the Teatre Lliure– his foreman summarized the spirit of his future plans with the phrase "sometimes you have to throw the stone at the Moon to hit, even if it's just, the lamppost." Despite everything, I understand the saying (perhaps it's my fault and the country's, too saturated with Ithacas) and I applaud the general ambition of his proposal and the sacred continuity with Fabià Puigserver's doctrine. In this sense, I celebrate that Manrique has resurrected a cursed word that should be in the Bible of any public facility: art. I quote textually: "A theater of art must put art and artists at the center. It must serve art and it must serve to make art. Above all." I would have added, for stylistic reasons: the rest, nonsense.
The second success of the project lies in a word that often becomes invisible among the city's entities… and it's quite funny: namely, Barcelona. I return to the textual quote: "The Teatre Lliure must define its commitment to the space it occupies. With the neighborhoods in which it is located, with the city of Barcelona. Define its place within the theatrical ecosystem to which it belongs, both in Catalonia and in the rest of the State, as well as internationally." I would have said it in a somewhat less conventional way; the Teatre Lliure is a public theater that has, since its foundational origins, a consubstantial relationship with our city and, more specifically, with the dramaturgical, acting, and scenographic tradition that originates from it, a form of art –written in Catalan and made with a Barcelonian will for European capital status, by the way– that needs to be rethought in contemporary terms in order to compete with the best theaters on the planet.
If things go in this direction, yes to everything and full steam ahead. But I wouldn't be myself without expressing some amendments. In a recent interview with colleague Magí Camps, the chronicler asked Manrique about the presence of classical Catalan theater at the Lliure. The answer: "I have to confess that no. Evidently, there is the possibility of doing a Guimerà, but it is not one of my main interests (...) But I do feel the desire and a bit of the responsibility to take care of Catalan authorship, which can sometimes be based on classical texts." Here is the core of the matter, beloved readers, because if one wants to "define the commitment that occupies" a public theater in Barcelona (therefore, keeping in mind the history of the city that has been written in the form of theater) it cannot be done without appealing to the country's classics. I applaud that the new director takes care of contemporary authorship, of course; but Barcelonians should know that this has an ancestral literary genealogy.
I applaud that the new director takes care of contemporary authorship, of course; but Barcelonians should know that this has an ancestral literary genealogyManrique will tell me that the TNC should do this (it was like that during Xavier Albertí's time; now we lean more towards Spanish texts... and bad ones), but in this aspect of the cultural game, the Lliure has exactly the same level of responsibility regarding heritage. Barcelona theater people should know that there is a unique way of seeing the world, of writing it and imagining it, that springs directly from our civic work. The problem, alas, is that the Barcelona dramaturgical and theatrical-musical tradition is not always offered to its natural spectators. I agree with the director that we should stage contemporary classics by reviewing them ad nauseam (I totally buy Jan Kott's theory). But just as the Auditori has the obligation to program the core of the Catalan repertoire that has been made from the city, the Teatre Lliure must reconnect the work of contemporaries with that of their ancient masters.
This, dear director, is not a minor issue; because the Lliure will not be able to be a popular theater of high artistic flights (apart from the progressive nonsense of accessible, inclusive, neurodiverse, transversal, family teamwork and blah blah blah) if it does not recover the Barcelona theatrical tradition, starting with that of its own house, which it has and in abundance. Apart from this: do we have to do Xécspirs, Xéjovs, Handkes, Pinters and their mother? Of course, and long live the theater we have read and reread until our eyes burned! But let's remember it again: all these authors have become universal... because their respective nations (and capitals!) have claimed them as flags, if necessary at sword point. I enthusiastically buy Manrique's project for the Lliure, but I leave a metaphor on record: the theater made in Barcelona for centuries is not a hand, nor a stone or a lamppost: it is the fucking Moon, kid.
Fucking metaphors…