From this Saturday, Grandpa Joan will tell his family, which is a big family, Charles Dickens' Christmas Story. This wouldn't have anything special, if it weren't for the fact that Grandpa Joan is the actor Joan Pera and the big family will be all the spectators who will go to the Romea theater to see him.
Pera doesn't know how to act without interacting with the audience, even if the audience doesn't say anything. "Joan always acts in dialogue with the audience, which is why there is no function until there is an audience; with him there is no fourth wall", points out Daniel Anglès, who directed the veteran actor in Tot l'any can ser Nadal. The piece is a tailor-made 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 the career of Joan Pera".
The actor explains that "Grandpa Joan looks a bit like Scrooge because he's clumsy and chubby", 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 has not let me be Scrooge. In any case, the actor must have a certain truth, I don't like to be just an actor: I say things the way I want to say them. Because words are one thing and what they carry within the words is another."
However, his long career still lacked this character, which he admits he really wanted to do. "And I'm very happy because I've been put on stage with a battery of sequins".
The director, Daniel Anglès, explains: "There are two worlds in the play. On the one hand, there is Avi Joan, who addresses the viewers as if they had gone to dinner with him. This is a tribute to Joan and all the work he has done throughout his professional life. The other side is when he transforms and tells the Christmas Story to the public as his grandfather told 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 the first one, that of the deceased partner, is a small tribute to Paco Morán.
The scenography is presided over 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 doesn't last. The character I play is very Caprian, by Joan Capri, who also made Bon Nadal, Mr. Scrooge in Romeo (1964). I have to say that we put on a very beautiful show, so beautiful, that I was overwhelmed."
In the conversation, the teammates reveal a detail of Joan Pera's way of doing things: "After the show, if coaches have come, get on each one to thank the audience for coming." "I thank them very much for the life they have given me", he concludes.
