A bluish, dark, and minimalist stage, which has a toilet bowl as its key element, greets the spectator as soon as they pass through the curtains of the Poliorama. It's nine o'clock sharp. Mònica López takes a few minutes to come out. The hall is practically full, and everyone awaits the actress's next move with attention. She looks at us defiantly and, full of passion, delivers an initial speech that ends up being a full-blown provocation. It is the declaration of intentions of a climate change denier. The audience applauds. They are hungry for theater.
This is how the new play by La Calòrica begins, a company that has been on Catalan stages for eleven years now.
De què parlem mentre no parlem de tota aquesta merda. Perhaps now that you have read the title, you understand a little more why the toilet bowl. As Aitor Galisteo would say, "the shrimp is key in this story," but the toilet, friends, is also important. Don't worry, you'll understand everything when you see the play. I only intend to give you some brushstrokes to feed your curiosity and encourage you to visit the theater.
If La Calòrica is known for anything, it is for creating pieces of high social criticism. Examples include Feísima enfermedad y muy triste muerte de la reina Isabel I, a tragicomedy about the hunger for power with which they debuted on stage, or Los pájaros, a free rewriting of Aristophanes' dramaturgy focused on the rise of neoliberal populism which, by the way, will travel to Madrid in March of next year. As you can see, the company stands out for dealing with complex (and rigorously current) topics, but in an entertaining way. Fleeing paternalism, it makes comedy out of what matters most to us (or should matter to us). In this case, what they are talking about is climate change.
De què parlem mentre no parlem de tota aquesta merda is, at heart, a mirror of ourselves as a society. Of our actions (and inactions), of our decisions (and passivities), of our coherences (and contradictions) when it comes to ending the problem, or, making the ball a little bigger every day.
The play narrates two stories, apparently independent, but with the same background. On one hand, we have a block of neighbors who are forced to agree and solve a problem that threatens their future as a community. On the other, a famous climate change denier who makes us part of her bitter struggle in a world that, she considers, is flooded with fake news. Entertainment guaranteed.
Joan Yago is the playwright who signs this political satire that will make you laugh and reflect in equal measure. The texts are ingenious and the staging is incredible. The calòrics do not disappoint. They are natural, close, funny, and lighthearted. Júlia Truyol is simply wonderful in all her characters, because yes, another interesting aspect of the play is that the actors play more than one character. All, sometimes checkmating traditional gender roles. I also cannot stop talking about the tandem formed by Aitor Galisteo and Esther López, for whom I have a special predilection. Go and judge for yourselves.
The work in Raimon Rius's lighting design, which immerses you in the story; Guillem Rodríguez's sound treatment, which captivates you, and Aharón Sánchez's visual resources, which are, without a doubt, the other jewel in the crown of this piece, which distills infinite care for every detail, must also be recognized.
This play, which is also an ode to the absurd and to banality, wants to test us. Us, and our arguments. A society that claims to be more aware every day, has to decide how it wants its future to be, if there is any possible future. The debate is served. Now it's up to you to decide if you want those from La Calòrica to be the moderators.
To conclude, and because life is never black or white but a game of grays, a single, but important but: the ending. And I'll leave it there, hoping that this small provocation will be the perfect excuse for you to go to the theater. It's worth it. De què parlem mentre no parlem de tota aquesta merda will be at the Poliorama until August 7, the day of the last performance. For now, the fourth has already sold out, and the fifth and sixth are on the same path. In this matter of selling out tickets, they have experience.