Barcelona Llibres

In the programme of the Grec 2024 Festival de Barcelona you will find, as usual, all kinds of proposals, some of them quite conventional, but which have found their raison d’être in aspects other than innovation. Others, on the other hand, are completely different from anything you have seen. Topping the list of unconventional shows at the Grec is one of the main ones this year: The Second Woman. It will be at the Teatre Lliure Montjuïc sometime between 6 p.m. on 6 July and 6 p.m. on 7 July.

Remember that The Second Woman is a version of the original staging that was premiered in Australia and successfully performed in London, among other capitals, by Nat Randall and Anna Breckon, the two directors of a show that is, in reality, an acting tour de force for the protagonist, who performs the same scene over and over again during the twenty-four hours of a day, each time with a different stage company. Television cameras follow the protagonists, so that the action is seen both at the front and the back of the stage.

In the Barcelona performances, you will have on stage María Hervás, an actress you know from theatre, cinema and television, who has accepted the challenge of working all day. She will perform the same scene, with variations, as improvisation is an element present in the proposal, but each time with an actor who will not be very similar to the previous one. Some will be professional actors who have agreed to take part in the experience, and some others will simply be people like you who have volunteered to take part. 

You can see that the gender with which the male protagonists of the reunion identify or not and the way they see the relationships between men and women have a lot to do with the experience. Buy a ticket and you will be shown the time slot during which you can enter the theatre where The Second Woman is performed. Watch the scene a few times, see how it changes depending on María Hervás‘ partner and, when you’ve had enough, go outside to stretch out for a while before going back in.

Of course, The Second Woman is possibly the most radically different show at this year’s Grec Festival in Barcelona, but it is not the only one that subverts stage rules.

Come, for example, to see La calidesa (from 9 to 11 July, at the Teatre Lliure Montjuïc), a creation by the Balearic artists Marta Barceló and Tolo Ferrà that does not take place, like most of the theatrical proposals that you can see at the Grec, on a stage, but… inside a box or a few boxes. And this is because these creators have arranged tiny stages that you can see alone or intimately accompanied, each one telling a story of loneliness and affection.

Nor can you expect a conventional show from El Conde de Torrefiel, the company that, after enlightening the public in 2022 with Una imagen interior, now, in their new creation entitled La luz de un lago (from 19th to 22nd July at the Teatre Lliure Montjuïc), they play with synesthesia and use sounds and what they suggest as the basis of the show.

Hamlet. En els plecs del temps that Cristiane Jatahy brings to the Teatre Lliure Montjuïc on 24 and 25 July will also use (like The Second Woman) television cameras to offer new perspectives on a Shakespearean hero who, this time, is not a hero but a heroine.

More different experiences? If you are fans of A Clockwork Orange, the novel by Anthony Burgess on which Kubrik’s film was based, don’t miss the performance by Candela Capitán Moloko Vellocet, which recreates the bar where the ultra-violent young men in the novel were found. The performance is on on the 7th, 11th and 13th, the best days to come and see it.

Finally, a final, unconventional show awaits you at the Antic Teatre, Alusinasons, which is a kind of euphoric concert. The main character, Jaume Clotet, puts his health at risk by consuming alcohol on stage and inviting the audience to join in a kind of stage drinking binge during which the artist’s aptitude will be affected by alcoholic ingestion. Don’t go home, come to the Verdaguer i Callís hall from 18 to 28 July.

If you don’t want to miss some of the most surprising shows at the Grec, check out the full programme and make your choice.