"We prioritize bringing up the stories of the past on stage to be able to better face the present," Felipe Cabezas, director of Sala Fènix, explained to La Vanguardia. The program of the theater presents one more year its special cycle, Historical Memory, with three theatrical productions and an exhibition in the hall of the room.
"The Sala Fènix has always had a clear vocation to promote a political theater and to help a social change that we consider necessary", continued Cabezas. In this way, the Historical Memory cycle is the culmination of an initiative that has spent years filling the stage with testimonies and stories with a political and protest background. For this reason, the works of the 2022 edition focus on neighborhood organization, the rights of working women and the ridicule of power.
The initiative celebrates its fourth anniversary in the 2022 edition, since from the beginning it has managed to gain a lot of loyalty from an audience committed to its cause. "It's like summoning people for a demonstration," says the director of the room. "People always come with plenty of time to talk at the theater door and, after the play, impromptu colloquiums are organized," adds Cabezas.
The programming of the 2022 cycle includes two Catalan productions and one from the Basque Country. First of all, Cia La voz ahogada presents La Lola, a documentary about an emblematic resident of Poblenou, which began to celebrate her hundredth anniversary. The work tells the story of her resilience and the neighborhood struggle that she promoted to ensure basic services in her neighborhood, "in a time of silence and repression," according to the company. The work premiered on November 30 and can be seen until December 4.
On the other hand, Tarán-Tran-Transición will be released on December 7. (Rain, gray and the 5,000 lovers of the King), a production of La Pacheca Collective. In this multidisciplinary work, the Basque company intends to review the recent history of Spain and question whether a democratic transition has really taken place. With a completely satirical and mocking tone, the work "removes the dirty laundry of our country's elite", explains the theater director. The work will last only until December 11.
On December 14th it will be the turn of El silenci dels telers, an original idea by Maria Casellas, and the largest production in the Historical Memory cycle. The work talks about the harsh conditions that Catalan workers lived in textile factories at the end of the 19th century. It is also a documentary theater exhibition that "allows us to see History in capital letters while we deal with the little underestimated stories, although they are essential to really understand a time", according to their protagonists.
The documentary work to carry out The Silence of the Looms was so significant that they were also able to produce the exhibition that can already be seen in the hall of Sala Fénix: The Silence of the Looms. Beyond machines. The photographic selection, with free entry, as well as the work, can be seen until December 18.
