On April 15, Juan Carlos Martel Bayod announced that he would not renew the position of director of the Teatre Lliure when the first five years of his mandate ended. Although it can be extended, the Fundació del Teatre Lliure then declared that Martel would not continue, because “the necessary internal conditions for adequate development in the continuity of the project do not exist.” In October, the board announced his replacement: Julio Manrique. La Vanguardia now talks with Martel, a month and a half before his final farewell to the Teatre Lliure.
How have you lived these five years since 2019?
I think that in the Lliure there has been a great transformation, which has also been carried out in situations that we did not expect: in the fall of 2019, containers were being burned in Urquinaona, the storm Gloria flooded a room, after two months the pandemic arrived, now the war in Ukraine, inflation... It has been five years of external storms, and also internal ones: all of this has to be managed with the people who suffer these storms.
And yet its balance is positive.
I am very grateful for the opportunity I was given to pursue my directing program, which I believe is 95% complete. That is a lot, because it is a daring and ambitious program, where the social and educational part has a lot of weight.
What is it based on?
Well, in the data we have to know if we have done it well or badly and if we have met the objectives, which are extraordinarily positive. There has been an internal and external change. I think our audience has changed its skin, with an average age of 45 years old, whereas in 2010 it was 63, and in 2018 it was 51.
Has the young audience increased?
In an impressive way. We have 5,980 people under the age of 35 who are spectators of the Teatre Lliure, when in 2018 there were 1,600. Another fact is that of the diverse audience: we have gone from 164 spectators in 2010 to almost 6,000 people in 2023. These data confirm that What the management program stated has been achieved, which was to open the theater and make it more diverse and democratic.
On the other hand, he did not want to run for another mandate. So what hasn't been positive?
These jobs have a temporality, we are all finite, even if we do not remember. We have an expiration date, which luckily we don't know and it allows you to live. The contract was for five years, renewable, but we have decided not to extend it because the program has been developed, despite all the external and internal inconveniences. If I had continued it would have been to consolidate the project, but that depends above all on economic resources and will.
Doesn't the Free Theater have enough financial resources?
They are the same approximately 9.5 million that we already had in 2010, and we must take into account that social and educational policies, which have a long-term return, what they do not have is an economic return. That is why a program that puts strength into what has to be a public theater is unfeasible in 2024.
What would be a good budget?
The double But I hope that the Free Theater Foundation will take certain actions to be able to improve the budgets.
What do you mean by “will”?
It means what we all do to make it different, and that is more complicated, because factors of values and beliefs come into play, what this house is about, how we can help, what we want. I don't trust that it will be solved in the short term, otherwise I would have continued.
And when you said “everyone”, who are you referring to?
To all. They talk about the soul of the Lliure and everyone has an answer. The Lliure is made up of everyone who participates. First the creators, without creators there is no theater. But then there are workers, employers, administrations and, no less important, the public, who shape the Lliure we want. We now have more subscribers than five years ago. That fear that said they would flee... Well, they have not fled, but this season will be the best or the second best in history, but we will have to wait until June to find out. Therefore, if you believe in the need for a public theater, something has to change.
Therefore, some of these “all” do not end up rowing in the same direction.
I think it is not a problem that only affects the Teatre Lliure, but public theater in general. What is its real function? Today, there are few resources and many needs. It is impossible for public cultural institutions to be able to run on public resources alone. You cannot ask that of the administrations, and even less so from a private foundation like the Lliure.
So what mechanisms are there?
The administrations can give more support to the Lliure. For example, there are those that have not yet recovered the contribution from 2008, when the crisis occurred. But the foundation also has to look for collaboration mechanisms with the private sector to be able to balance its budgets. An example: if we want to change all the engines in the Fabià Puigserver room, one way is to buy them and the other is to look for an alliance so that there is sponsorship.
That can not be done?
I can't do it, but the foundation can. The balance has begun to be achieved, creating teams, not leaving the entire burden on management. There must be constant dialogue between the governing bodies: the governing board, management and workers.
Doesn't it exist now?
Until now it has been scarce, but now the foundation has shown where it wants it to go, with the new leadership election.
However, it has reached 95% of the project that was set.
Unlike 2013, when we had 38 productions, now we have 32, but we have more muscle at an educational and social level. In 2010 there were 24 educational actions, in 2018 there were 49, and in 2024 there were 194. I say the years of change of direction. That means balancing the budget and looking for opportunities.
As which?
We have not missed a call for extraordinary aid, such as the Feder funds, the European Next Generation, Creative Europe... Thanks to that, we have photovoltaic panels that allow us to save 25% of the energy we consume. This means that the human activity that you spend seeking this aid also suffers.
How much of the budget is structural?
Almost 70%: the structure has eaten up the activity. And that has happened because the budget has not increased since 2010.
Of these five years, what are you most proud of?
Of many things: first, of not having done it alone, and after having given more work to the creators of this city and internationally these five years, than the previous 40.
Despite the reduction of shows?
Yes, because creation is not linked to production.
And what would you have done differently and would change now if you could go back?
Going back is an exercise in nostalgia. I think more about the future: from now on, when I find myself in the same situation, I will surely do it differently. And if people move for intrinsic, extrinsic and transcendent reasons, for me the most important are the transcendent ones. All the extrinsic part would have corrected it. Extrinsic means seeking applause, and I'm not like that at all.
One of the criticisms it has received has been for stopping doing stable programming at Espai Lliure.
The Espai Lliure has not been closed, but has been used for the residency program and the educational program. Another thing is having the necessary muscle to program three rooms in Barcelona, with what that means in budget, with three teams of technicians, etc. My option has been the first, and I am extraordinarily satisfied with it.
And now what will you do, what projects do you have?
Wherever I go, I will go with my values and my beliefs. That is, enhance the educational, social and cultural axes, the democratization of public space and the search for the opening of cultural public space. Right now, I don't think that by staying as director in this institution, I can fulfill myself as a person, because I can't consolidate my project.
What will it hurt you if the new direction changes?
There are programs that transcend directions, and that is wonderful. The person who enters now will not be able to consider that productions are not sustainable, that theater is not accessible, that the world and digital agility enter into our daily lives as they have already entered. The residency program, which we have developed very strongly these five years, may not be the way Martel has done it, but it is difficult for the director who comes in not to take care of the grassroots creator. I have counted up to ten projects that will transcend.
Does Julio Manrique seem like a good replacement to you?
It is what the board and the foundation have wanted, and I have no voice here.
But he does have an opinion.
I am on the side of what the foundation decides.
Have you started working together on the relay?
On November 1 it already entered the programmatic part.
Have you met many times?
Of the.
And you haven't planned to see each other more?
It depends on him. I am at the disposal of the Free Theater Foundation.
What will he do on February 1, when his term ends, although there is still his programming until the summer?
From that moment on, Julio Manrique takes the reins, including the press conferences, and I, as Martí i Pol said, will come “to applaud and face thanks.”
An Odissea was planned in June, which you directed with Raül Refree, but it has fallen off the schedule. What happened?
It is a wonderful idea that we both have, but to develop it at the end of the season I did not see myself having the desire or energy to be able to do it. Leaving in January and rehearsing again I found it a bit strange.
Finally, will you tell us exactly why you are leaving?
I think I have already said it throughout the interview, and that is that the internal conditions do not exist to be able to continue. There are neither human nor financial resources to develop the project, and you need the support of one hundred percent of the people who make up this house. And it is true that there is a part that has values and beliefs that contradict the objective of wanting to consolidate this project.
