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 Free Theater Foundation declared at the time that Martel would not continue, because "there are not the necessary internal conditions for adequate development in the continuity of the project". In October, the board announced his replacement: Julio Manrique. La Vanguardia is now talking to Martel, a month and a half before his farewell to Teatre Lliure.
How has he lived these five years?
I think that there has been a great transformation at Lliure, which has also taken place in situations that we did not expect: in the autumn of 2019, containers were being burned in Urquinaona, the Gloria storm flooded one of our rooms, after two months the pandemic arrived, now the war in Ukraine, inflation... It has been five years of external storms, and also internal: all this must be managed with the people who suffer these storms.
And yet does it make a positive balance?
I am very grateful for the opportunity I was given to do my directing program, which I think is 95% developed. This is a lot, because it is a daring and ambitious program, where the social and educational part has a lot of weight. Our audience has changed skin, with an average age of 45, and in 2010 it was 63, and in 2018 it was 51.
And 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 figure is that of the diverse audience: we have gone from 164 spectators in 2010 to 6,000 people in 2023.
Instead, he did not want to run for another term. What has not been positive?
If it had continued, it would have been to consolidate the project, but this depends above all, first, on financial resources and, second, on will.
Don't have enough financial resources?
It is the same 9.5 million approximately that we already had in 2010, and it must be taken 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 the force in what must be a public theater is unviable in 2024. It cannot be consolidated, due to a lack of resources and will.
What would be a good budget?
The double But I hope that the Free Theater Foundation will take certain actions to improve budgets.
How much of the budget is structural?
Almost 70%: the structure has eaten the activity. And this 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 then, of having given more work to the creators of this city and on an international scale these five years, than the previous 40.
And what will he do now, what projects does he have?
Wherever I go, I will go with my values and my beliefs. In other words, to promote the educational, social and cultural axes, the democratization of the public space and the search for the opening of the cultural public space. Right now, I don't think that by staying as a director in this institution, I can fulfill myself as a person, because I can't consolidate the project.
Does it seem like a good relief, Julio Manrique?
It is what the board of trustees and the foundation wanted, and I have no say here.
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 will take the reins, and I, as Martí and Pol said, will come "to applaud and thank you again".
Finally, will you tell us exactly why it folds?
I think I have already said it, and that is that the internal conditions are not met to be able to continue. There are neither the 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. It is true that there is a part that has values and beliefs that contradict the objective of wanting to consolidate this project.
