Tango says that twenty years is nothing, but it's not true. For a company like La Perla 29 are a lifetime, the consolidation of an artistic project that has borne tasty fruits in the Barcelona theatre. To close the celebrations of these two decades, its director, Oriol Broggi, presents the public with a whole Goldoni: Coralina, the loving servant, at the La Biblioteca theater.
“Summer is coming, we are coming out of some difficult times, we have done darker works and it occurred to us to recover the idea of setting up another Goldoni”, says Broggi, referring to another successful piece by the house, L'hostalera, which he directed Pau Carrio. “Goldoni is much more than a comedy. She has been hard to pick up and ride, but instead she is very easy to see: very nice and round and fun. And we are happy to be able to present this great team, because we like to do theater with a big production”.
The director refers to the ten performers who bring this 18th century piece to life, led by Mireia Aixalà, accompanied by a cast where there are a few regulars from the house: Joan Arqué Solà, Xavier Boada, Rosa Gámiz, Clara de Ramon , Xavier Ruano, Sergi Torrecilla, Ireneu Tranis, Ramon Vila and Jaume Viñas.
Coralina is the servant of Ottavio's mansion, who has grown up with the heir, but now the lord has become a widow at an advanced age and has remarried a woman who cunningly pulls all the strings so that her own son is the recipient of the old man's inheritance. He has managed to banish the young man, and Coralina, demoted to the status of a servant of the last level, has decided to follow him. Coralina, however, sets out to restore the good position of Ottavio's son. The tangle is served.
"Goldoni is very modern," says Aixalà. Women are more intelligent, they are the ones who move the world and the maid is the smartest. In fact, servants are smarter than masters." For the actress, “it seems to be very simple because apparently nothing happens, but things do happen, and the characters are very complex. Also, we constantly break the fourth wall.”
“The relationship between servants and masters, and between men and women is very important,” observes Broggi. These are relationships that we are working on today as a society. The three women in the play are the ones who generate and solve the action. Sometimes they say phrases that seem written today.
“What is more complicated is finding the exact tone,” confesses Broggi. Goldoni takes the tradition of the commedia dell'arte without masks and creates a new theatricality in Venice, a city that is undergoing transformation. We have to place it in our moment. Doing Goldoni and seeing Goldoni today is exciting”.
Vila signs with Broggi the version, “not an adaptation”, where they don't play with standard Venetian and Italian. “Goldoni makes good the cliché that says that important things are said in a simple way –says Vila–. With the characters you have to do it very well so as not to exaggerate. The actors and actresses have also helped to find the mode and tone”.
Coralina, la serventa amorosa is the last play of this season of La Perla 29. It opens at the La Biblioteca theater on May 31 and will tour Catalonia next year. “It's not an Estrella Damm ad, but it is a summer song that caresses you”, concludes Broggi.
Catalan version, here
