Oui!, Barcelona's French-language theater festival, reaches its sixth edition in very good health. On this occasion, from tomorrow until February 5, various stages in the city and the surrounding area will host eight plays, seven of which are premieres in Spain, as well as complementary activities.
Mathilde Mottier and François Vila are the factotums of the festival, which since its foundation has been gathering more and more public and private support. This year it will also have a headquarters in Castelldefels.
L'insolent Roland Garros, by Éric Bouvron and Vincent Roca, opens the festival tomorrow, at the French Institute. The work approaches the figure of the aviator born in Réunion, the Indian Ocean island that participates for the first time with a production. The Réunion airport is named after him, as is the tennis tournament held in Paris, even though he was not a tennis player. The production is made up of a very physical and visual theater, given that Bouvron comes from the world of dance.
On January 29, at the Plaza de Castelldefels theater, Téléphone-moi, by Jean-Christophe Dollé, will be presented, the story of a family throughout the 20th century, always told from a telephone device.
At the French Institute, on the 31st comes Salina, les three exiles, by Laurent Gaudé, a work discovered at the Avignon Festival. It is the first time that the author allows one of his works to be adapted, in this case by Bruno Bernardin and Khadija El Mahdi. On stage, Salina's son tells the story of his mother, who suffered three exiles.
Les époux, by David Lescot, will do two shows at Dau al Sec del Poble Sec (1 and 2/II). The montage approaches the Ceasescu couple, the Romanian dictators who ended up executed.
Revanche, by Marjorie Fabre, with a company from Marseille directed by Marie Provence, presents a show about the fight between youth gangs, with an air of very physical theater (French Institute, 2/II).
One of the renowned premieres is Le village de l'allemand, an adaptation of the novel by Boualem Sansal, which had to wait ten years to be able to take place on stage. Luca Franceschi has adapted and directs this triptych, which deals with the Holocaust, the war in Algeria in the nineties and the situation of the banlieues (French Institute, 3/II).
Voltaire-Rousseau, by Jean-François Prévand, "is like a match between the two characters," says its author and one of the two interpreters. “It is an imaginary meeting, based on a situation from 1775 where a pamphlet denounced Rousseau for having abandoned his five children in the hospice. Rousseau wants to know if it was Voltaire who wrote it” (Reial Cercle Artístic, 4/II).
The eighth and final work, by Guy Delamotte and Véro Dahuron, is Broken, which is presented at Dau al Sec ( 5/II). It is a story of accidents and deficiencies, like the eye that the actress lost on stage. The piece is composed with live music and video art.
The Festival Oui! it is completed with talks, conferences, concerts and dramatized readings, and it is already a fixed date in the theater calendar of Barcelona.
