The Grec Festival has put the focus on distant cultures in recent years. Around the world started in the first year of Cesc Casadesus As artistic director of the cultural festival that animates the month of July in Barcelona, he finished last year in Africa, after stopping in previous editions in Asia, the USA and the Mediterranean. Now it’s time to look around us and look inside. Local artists shine as much as international ones in the program presented this Wednesday at the amphitheater.
The famous dance company Nederlands Dans Theater – NDT 1 will open the festival on June 29 at the Montjuïc amphitheater with three pieces: ‘How to cope with a sunset when the horizon has been dismantled’, by Marina Mascarell; ‘Bedroom folk’, by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar; and ‘One flat thing’, by William Forsythe. And on the same stage the festival will say goodbye ‘Lost paradise’the adaptation of John Milton’s play by Helena Tornero and directed by Andrés Lima.
As a novelty, highlight the incorporation of new spaces to the festival such as El Molino, converted into a public cultural facility by the City Council. It will feature a varied selection of rogue and ‘queer’ proposals curated by Vicenç Fibla and the Eufònic festival.
Local and international creation
The program includes 86 theater, circus, music, dance and hybrid format shows, 34 of which are co-productions. This year the main partners of the Grec are the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna, the Kunstenfestival des Arts in Brussels and the Théatre de la Ville in Paris.
From June 29 to July 28 will parade through Barcelona figures like the daring dancer Israel Galvan, this time with a show with the Escolanía de Montserrat, and Barcelona companies with their own label such as Lord Serrano Group Y The Count of Torrefiel. The festival will premiere new plays by Catalan playwrights such as Marta Buchaca, Jordi Casanovas, Jordi Prat i Coll and Llàtzer Gràcia.
And, although it’s not a premiere, it’s worth noting that ‘Opening Night’, an award-winning show from The Veronal that many were left without seeing returns to the TNC.
In the international section, creations by leading artists such as the Iranian director Amir Reza Koohestani and the german Thomas Ostermeier with an incendiary version of ‘An enemy of the people’, from Ibsen. Also the powerful North American company The Wooster Group, who denounces racism in his country with ‘The B-Side’; the extravagant Cape Verdean choreographer Marlene Montero Freitasthe multidisciplinary and original Phia Menard and the incisive Italian director Romeo Castellucci with his shocking ‘Bros’, released in the last Temporada Alta.
unusual connections
Among the novelties, highlight some unusual connections that the Grec will promote in its 46th edition. On the one hand, it will unite the radical flamenco of Galván with the voices of the Escolanía de Montserrat in ‘Sixes’. On the other, the versatile pianist Marco Mezquida with the Portuguese singer Salvador Sobralwinner of Eurovision 2017. The OBC will also go beyond music, uniting its symphonic sound with the visual creations of Alba G. Corral.
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The classics will also have space at the Grec. Beyond the adaptation of Milton’s epic poem, the Grec will offer new versions of ‘The Trickster of Seville’, by Tirso de Molina ; from hamlet, of Shakespeare and ‘Tartuffe’ of Moliere. And a montage inspired by Classical Greece: ‘Sappho’, scenic, musical and visual poem inspired by the famous poetess of Lesbos. Rocker Christina Rosenvinge is among the stars of the show.
Beyond the proposals in the rooms of the Grec Montjuïc and Grec ciutat, more than 50 activities will also be organized in 55 spaces in Barcelona.