03.10.2014 - 12:02
Starting today and until 18 December, Girona, the capital city of northeastern Catalonia, will be hosting the nation’s biggest theatre festival, Temporada Alta (high season). This year, the festival will be offering the best international programme in its twenty-three-year history, along with many Catalan productions (more than half of the programme). This year, for the first time, the festival will also be celebrating Playwrights’ Week, a series of events whose intention is to help consolidate the next generation of Catalan authors and playwrights whose successes on the national theatre scene have gained them prominence.
Amid a politically fraught and decisive moment for the nation’s future, at a time when cultural desertification is spreading and the theatre world is reeling from the effects of economic stagnation, Temporada Alta has put together a programme whose aims is to reflect the cultural landscape of the country many wish to be. Festival director, Salvador Sunyer, explains: ‘We have dreamed up a big festival with a strong lineup—it is perhaps the best edition we have put together—aiming for balance in three domains: international programming (we want to be an open, cosmopolitan country), supporting Catalan authors (this is one of the festival’s central tenets), and showcasing new talent (which dovetails with the goal of building a future-oriented country and emphasises the question of what the future of Performing Arts will be)’.
Until 8 December, Temporada Alta will be showcasing work by some of the biggest names on the international theatre scene, among them Peter Brook, Jan Fabre, Kristyan Lupa, Christoph Marthaler, Oskaras Korsunovas, Romeo Castellucci, and Christiane Jatahy. This edition will also feature top-of-the-line African productions, including a transposition of Verdi’s opera Macbeth to postcolonial Africa directed by Brett Bailey, as well as Alain Platel’s groundbreaking Coup Fatal, with Les ballets C de la D, a thirteen-piece orchestra, and the powerful voice of Congolese countertenor Serge Kakudji.
