How to be happy?

Saturday February 19. Rehearsal day at the Theater La Biblioteca.

Today, in addition, we will do a photo session.

The company is coming. They have a coffee at the bar, eat a croissant. In the dressing room, Berta is trying on the clothes she will play for today. We will rehearse several scenes, especially the circus part, where the costume is a party. Laura's steamy red skirt, Guillem's aviator helmet and pink sequined dress, Màrcia's checked shirt and hat, Montse's tutu.

It's time to test visuals, light and sound. The setting of the Library is very different from that of La Colline, so many things will have to be adjusted on the spot . But the company is "in place", the sets are starting to go up and, little by little, 28 and a half is taking shape, and all the pieces are starting to fit. Because it is necessary to fit this collage, the kaleidoscope that is 28 and a half , a work that draws on many references, which is at the same time a tribute to all those fragments, moments, songs and texts that, in one way or another, have served to create an imaginary that is already a trademark of the house.

Thus, two characters appear on stage inside a house, and their dialogue becomes a conversation between Federico, this alter ego of a director who is in the middle of the path of his life , and Antonietta, a dialogue that reproduces the beginning of that wonderful story that is Una giornata particolare , by Ettore Scola, and Federico tells Antonietta the story of Notxa, the protagonist of that children's tale that he liked so much Oriol when he was little, and which tells the story of a painter who, to escape from the prison where he was locked up for disobeying the emperor, painted a picture and crossed it to enter a fantasy world. And, like him, Federico and Antonietta cross a picture and enter another world, the world of theater, cinema, fantasy, and the curtains reveal another stage, and this becomes a set, and the theater arch emerges from the set, through which some actors enter, and these actors become clowns... And so, curtain after curtain, layer upon layer, the actors and actresses of this 28 and a half are transformed into various characters, and the spiral of scenes, pictures and sequences grows and grows in an explosion of colors, words, images and music, the music that everyone sings, accompanied by Joan's accordion Garriga, and the guitars, and the drums, and the whole room is filled with rumba, folk, Neapolitan melodies and popular songs.

And we let ourselves be carried away by this magical journey and, at that moment, we find an answer to the initial question of the play: "How do you go about being happy"?