El rei Lear

This is a great, brutal work. The characters, all of them, are wonderful. The story is, as you will see or know, beautiful.

It is a great thrill to be able to bring this production back to Barcelona, to the Library, which over the past few months has been visiting some cities and towns in Catalonia, touring with around twenty performances.

The old king Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, guided by the love each one shows. However, he makes the mistake of dividing the lands between his two older daughters, the flatterers Goneril and Regan. The youngest, Cordelia, refuses to engage in the humiliating game with her father and her sisters and is sent into exile, banished. Goneril and Regan soon reveal their cruel nature and deny refuge to their father. Lear plunges into a storm (both real and mental) accompanied by his few faithful followers. The pain drives him mad. Meanwhile, Goneril and Regan vie for the love of Edmund and, at the same time, for the power of the kingdom. Cordelia returns from her imposed exile with the French army ready to fight, with the help of Kent, against her usurping sisters. The game of betrayals and rivalries initiates a fierce battle with sadness, loneliness, old age, and death, very close in the final act.

King Lear is perhaps Shakespeare's most difficult and complex work and has always been associated with maturity and older people. But for us, a fairly young company, that doesn't scare us because we conceive of theater as a party. A celebration that connects us with our audience and with our authors. I would like our Lear to be just that: a party. A celebration for the senses and emotions; something important for our theater and our life. And when I say ours, I mean, obviously, yours. Finally, I want to thank you again, for your - difficult and precious - attention.

Oriol Broggi