Starting this Saturday, Avi Joan will tell his family, a big family, Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. That wouldn't have anything special if it weren't for the fact that Avi Joan is the actor Joan Pera and his large family will be the spectators who will go to the Romea theater to see him.
Pera does not know how to act without interacting with the audience, even if the audience does not say anything. “Joan always acts in dialogue with the audience, which is why there is no performance until there is an audience; With him there is no fourth wall,” says Daniel Anglès, who directed the veteran actor in Tot l’any pot ser Nadal. The piece is a custom adaptation for the actor of the Dickens story, signed by Jaume Viñas, who reveals that "there is a small fragment that is a tribute to Joan Pera's career."
The actor says that “Avi Joan is a bit like Scrooge because he is stingy and grumpy,” but he confesses that he has little of Scrooge: “Maybe the only thing is that I eat little so as not to spend, but with six children, life doesn't suit me.” He has stopped being Scrooge. In any case, the actor has to have a certain truth, I don't like to be an actor alone: I say things the way I want to say them. Because words are one thing and what the words contain inside is another.”
However, in his long career this character was still missing, which he admits he really wanted to play. “And I am very happy because they have given me the limelight on stage.”
The director, Daniel Anglès, details: “There are two worlds in the work. On the one hand, there is Avi Joan, who addresses the audience as if they had gone to dinner with him. It is a tribute to Joan and all the work he has done throughout his professional life. The other part is when he transforms and explains the Christmas Carol to the public as his grandfather told it to him.”
“I play 30 or 32 roles,” jokes Pera, who although he is alone on stage has the voices of Mont Plans, Roger Pera, Cristina Mauri and Irene Jódar for the spirits that visit him. They say that in the first one, that of the deceased partner, there is a memory of Paco Morán.
The set is dominated by a large window where images are projected, “with very careful music by Uri Plana and Roger Argemí,” details Anglès. And there are many surprises, which we will not reveal here.
“The show lasts an hour and a quarter, but I live under threat,” says Pera, “I work under duress, so that it does not last longer. The character she played is very much like Joan Capri, who also made a Bon Nadal, Mr. Scrooge in Romea (1964). I have to say that we have put on a very beautiful show, so beautiful, that I was stunned.”
In the conversation, the teammates reveal a detail of Joan Pera's way of doing things: “After the show, if coaches have come, go up to each one of them to thank the audience for coming.” “I thank you very much for the life you have given me,” concludes the actor.
Catalan version, here
