El Grec 2014 warms up

The 38th edition of Barcelona’s Grec Festival will take place this year from the 1st to the 31st of July and will include more than 70 theatre, dance, music, circus and multi-format proposals. The festival will open with a free performance of M.U.R.S. by La Fura dels Baus on the 30th of June in the Castell de Montjuïc. M.U.R.S. is what is known as a smartshow, meaning it allows free audience interaction, and repeat performances will be held from the 1st to the 5th of July.

The official inaugural performance will take place on the 1st in the Teatre Grec, when renowned New York contemporary dance company Gallim Dance will present Wonderland. This year’s programme for the Teatre Grec comes replete with international acts, highlights of which include Fountainhead by Toneelgroep Amsterdam, a production with a staging that is just as unique as last year’s Tragèdies Romanes, which was so well received by the Barcelona public, Sun, a piece that approaches the subject of colonialism and features a total of 14 dancers sharing the stage. Then there is Tauerbach, a performance that takes place entirely in a rubbish dump, and Korean productions The Maids, physical theatre with video-projections and innovative sound design by the Sadari Movement Lab, and the Ahnsooyoung Company’s version of Swan Lake. Other highlights include Le Capital, in which cult director Sylvain Creuzevault and the French dance company, D’Ores et dejà, construct an improvised political comedy using Karl Marx’s Das Kapital as a starting point.

As with every year, Catalan theatre will have a strong presence in the festival. Among other productions, Julio Manrique will direct Ramon Madaula and Joan Carreras in La partida (Dealer’s Choice), a comedy that deals with the relationship between fathers and sons, Sergi Belbel will present the first performance of Vells temps, a play based on a text by Harold Pinter that explores memory and the fragility of human relationships, and Krum, directed by Carme Portaceli and based on a piece by one of Israel’s most renowned playwrights, Hanoch Levin. Also worth highlighting is El testamento de María, by Agustí Villalonga, in which actress Blanca Portillo plays the role of Mary, mother of Jesus. Other proposals include the Shakespeare-tinted Victòria d’Enric V, the representation of Lonely Together in the Mercat de les Flors, the opera L’eclipsi and the monologue, El bon lladre, to name just a few.

This year’s festival also includes musical theatre, with Merda d’artista by Ferrán González and Joan Miquel Pérez, Nit de Musicals, with compositions by Albert Guinovart and the Barcelona Municipal Band, Onze.Nou.Catorze (1714), a love story set during the siege of Barcelona, and Nevares en concert, by Ignasi Roda, based on a short story by Pere Calders. Circus will be represented by four productions, Beyond, Disbarat!, Rudo and Rhum, while, following on the success of last year, children and families will once again be able to enjoy their special programme, MiniGrec.

One of the special moments of the festival will surely be the performance by Dagoll-Dagom on the 16th of July in the Font de Montjuïc, in which the company will celebrate their 40 year career with a recompilation open to the general public. On the musical side, highlights include concerts by Marina Rossell, Mayte Martín, Motis-Chamorro Quintet & Scout Hamilton, Eels, Joe Satriani, Josh Rouse, Los Mambo Jambo, Els Amics de les Arts, Iván Ferreiro, Bobby McFerrin and Adrià Puntí, some of whom will perform in the new festival venues, the BARTS and the Jamboree.

For a full programme and to purchase tickets, follow this link.