All set for Grec 2015

The Grec Festival of Barcelona is all set to celebrate its 39th edition from the 1st to the 31st of July and includes a total of eighty-or-so theatre, dance, music and circus productions. The festival’s status as an international platform is confirmed by the inclusion of eleven international co-productions.

The performance that will inaugurate Grec 2015 is the dance production Vorònia by the company La Veronal, an exploration of the concept of evil that fuses movement, text and image. The day before the inauguration, however, there will be a free event in the Plaça Margarida Xirgu featuring the band Oques Grasses y Obeses and the Barcelona Municipal Band. The square in question is one of the new spaces that are participating in the festival for the first time.

On the theatrical front, the foundation for the bulk of the Grec 2015 programme, we can highlight Catalan productions the likes of VIP, a sarcastic production by Els Joglars in which five actors represent more than thirty characters that are as vivid as life itself, Premis i càstig, a collaboration between the ‘T de Teatre’ Company and Argentinian director Ciro Zorzoli based on a text that explores the mechanisms of theatrical representation, and Los esqueiters, a piece by Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs that deals with two artists and skaters who yearn for freedom. In El Carrer Franklin 2 Lluïsa Cunillé and Josep Maria Miró offer a comical take on the current crisis from the perspective of an evicted transvestite, while the new play by Mario Gas, Sócrates, Judgement and death of a citizen, starring Josep Maria Pou, recreates the trial of one of the great classical thinkers who was accused of speaking out against corruption. In Neus Català. Un cel de plom, Mercè Arànega takes on the role of a woman who survived the Nazi concentration camps. Other highlights include Bangkok, Penso en Yu, La tortuga de California, Bluf, Federico García and Amor & Shakespeare which, directed by Josep M. Mestres, offers a perspective on the ways to experience a passionate relationship through the work of actors the likes of Sílvia Bel, Jordi Boixaderas, Roger Casamajor, Ariadna Gil, Joel Joan and Mercè Pons.

In terms of foreign productions it is worth highlighting the contemporary classic La voix humaine by director Ivo Von Hove and the Toneelgroep Amsterdam Company, which portrays the end of a love affair on the basis of one final telephone call. In La Nit d’Helver a theatre company that survived the siege of Sarajevo without interrupting its activities tells the tale of two people who flee the war zone, while Soeurs, the latest work of Wajdi Mouawad, explores subjects such as identity and language and the humiliation that not being able to speak it freely supposes. For its part, Civil Wars offers a portrait of contemporary Europe based on the real-life experiences of the actors and actresses in the play. Also worth mentioning are the production by French writer and director Pascal Rambert, La clausura del amor, a chronicle of a break-up starring Bárbara Lennie and Israel Elejalde, both of whom starred in Magical Girl and are a couple in real life, a fact that is central to the success of the piece.

Regarding dance productions, Sol Picó returns with a performance concerning the feminine condition W. W. (We Women), while Jordi Cortés and the Klakahart Association offer Fuck-in-Progress, a production that deals with the relationship we have with our bodies and the fear we have of revealing ourselves as we truly are. Epíleg d’un inici (El secret de les meduses) is a piece based on the poems and reflections of plastic artist Perejaume, incisions (Tríptic), by Man Drake and Tomeo Vergés, recreates a fantasy world on the basis of a family tale and the films of an experimental film maker and Hakanaï, by Compaigne Adrien M/Claire B, fuses choreography and technology. The same company will also present another production entitled Cinemateque.

The world of circus will also be represented in Grec 2015 through productions the likes of Pals, which combines contemporaneity with rustic, natural elements, Fuga, a production by Mallorcan company Res de Res that explores human limitations, and Il n’est pas encore minuit..., by the creators of Le Grand C and which features acrobatics and human towers.

The musical programme features one major name, Joan Manuel Serrat, who will offer a retrospective on his 50 years as a performer with a concert entitled Antologia desordenada. For their part Els Amics de les Arts will celebrate their ten years of existence with a big band format recital of many of their hits. Another big name on the musical front will be that of Ismael Serrano, who will present his latest release, La llamada, a recording replete with South American folk rhythms. For his part, flamenco singer-songwriter Diego el Cigala will offer a retrospective on his career accompanied by Jaime Calabach Yumitos, a pianist from the Gràcia district of Barcelona.

Renowned international artists also feature as part of the programme, for example Kyle Eastwood, the son of the legendary actor and director, who will present a record in which he pays tribute to 50s and 60s jazz and Breton Yann Tiersen, who returns to Barcelona with a production in which he proposes an immersion into the desolate landscapes of Bretagne, Iceland and the Faroe islands using toy instruments. Other names worth looking out for include Lisandro Aristimuño, with his folk-based fusion of pop, rock and electronic music, Christopher Cross, with his elegant pop-rock, Motis-Chamorro Sextet & Young Jazz Band, Juan Perro, José James, Lambchop, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Lila Downs, Ane Brun, Albert Pla, Fermín Muguruza and Raül Fernández Refree, who will offer a performance entitled Guerra. The festival will also feature a Musicals Night, a Tango Night and a mosaic of Balkan music directed by Jordi Savall.

Finally, and for the third year running, MiniGrec will continue to offer a children’s programme which will begin with a free opening performance dedicated to the world of animals and continue with pieces the likes of Electric Babyland, an interactive, multi-lingual production for infants, El intrépido viaje de un hombre y un pez, a theatrical production based on objects, shadows and wire mechanisms, and, finally, the musical La butxaca del pantaló és un telèfon.

Grec 2015

When: from the 1st to the 31th of July

Tickets: different prices

Where: different places

More information here