The work of Stephen Sondheim, who died a year ago, is present in the career of Mario Gas. Since 1993, the director has staged four of his pieces (Golfus de Roma, Sweeney Todd, A little night music and Follies) and for this reason he accepted the proposal of Salvador Sunyer, director of Temporada Alta, to pay him a tribute.
Sondheim x Sondheim. Que passin els clowns is “crazy, with around fifty people involved in the production of the Girona festival”, declares Sunyer. “We want to end this edition with the message that, although the world is going very badly, the theater is not going so badly”. On Friday and Saturday at the Municipal Theater of Girona (buy your tickets here with a 20% discount on Entradas de Vaguardia).
For Gas, “Sondheim breaks the margins of the musical, and excites the viewer. What we present in Girona is a recital and a concert, with a small scenic anecdote. About twenty performers, an orchestra of eleven musicians conducted by Pep Pladellorens, and some videos that will remind some of those productions, especially of the artists who are no longer around. But the hits will be live. Everyone who collaborates has done so with great generosity, because with so many people there is no budget that reaches it”.
The actress Vicky Peña recalls that she has been in all four productions: "Performing Sondheim's music well, which accompanies the lyrics so well, is intense but delicious work."
The show is in Catalan and Spanish, depending on how the shows were performed at the time. “What matters, in a case like Sondheim, are the translators, and we have had Roser Batalla and Roger Peña, with splendid translations”, continues the director.
“When everything is broken, let the clowns come in, in the best sense of the word. They are the people who go about their day to day, regardless of what those in charge and politicians do”, concludes Gas.
Catalan version, here
