Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs are the darlings of Catalan theater. They know it perfectly well and, like two diligent children, they act accordingly. They debuted at the Lliure of Àlex Rigola in 2007 with Teenager Experience: Straithen con Freigthen: they were only 18 years old. Since then, they have been premiering shows that have entertained and surprised both the audience and critics equally. Els Estunmen is by far their biggest, craziest, and most ambitious production: an operatic superproduction with 21 performers on stage and an orchestra of 19 musicians. This has been made possible thanks to the complicity (and the money) of four major theaters: the Lliure and the Liceu of Barcelona and the Teatro Real and the Teatros del Canal of Madrid.
The charm of it all is that, despite the ambition of the project, Els Estunmen has all the characteristics of Albet and Borràs’s pieces: an absurd story, the tone of a B-movie, a crude sense of humor… The “trippy” dramaturgy of the two creators makes us imagine them writing the libretto and laughing out loud at their own ideas and bad jokes. They know they will always be able to make their dreams come true because they have been in the spotlight for almost 20 years, and because everyone (theaters, critics, and audiences) keeps buying into their craziness. This time, the artistic team is truly luxurious: the music is composed by Fernando Velázquez (author of the soundtracks for The Orphanage, The Impossible, and A Monster Calls), Max Glaenzel is responsible for the set design, and Silvia Delagneau for the costumes. We don’t want to imagine how much this show has cost.
This is the drama of Evangelina, a desperate mother after her teenage son has killed several people in an attack. Like Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011), the mother struggles between incomprehension and terror: while trying to understand the reasons that led her son to commit a massacre, her thirst for revenge grows, through a cinematic and rocambolesque plot. Albet and Borràs, in tunics and laurel crowns like classical poets, take a secondary role as narrators who, with a laptop in hand, will write almost live a story that reflects on the concept of the hero as the ultimate emblem of masculinity. Núria Lloansi is excellent in the role of the suffering mother: after seeing her in productions by Rodrigo García, Marta Galán, or Juan Navarro, it is a pleasure that she has been given a leading role at the Sala Fabià Puigserver. The opera singers provide the voices for the actors, highlighting Sandra Fernández and Vicenç Esteve Madrid as the parents and the countertenor Gabriel Díaz. José Ansaldi is the ideal performer for this production: the perfect combination of tenor and superhero.
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And the film stuntmen? A group of eight burly men bring the story to life (the scene full of mothers is memorable, as if we were in a music video directed by Michel Gondry), performing the jumps and falls required by the action and briefly telling us their personal stories. In fact, we leave eager to know more about them: children of military personnel, hyperactive kids, former athletes who have turned danger into their way of life. Els Estunmen is the milestone (for now) of Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs: a sum of Els esqueiters, Atraco, paliza y muerte en Agbanäspach, Mammón, and Falsestuff. A monumental trip, made with many resources, brilliant moments, and a lot of passion. The scene with Quentin Tarantino saves the production quite a bit. And well… who said violence causes violence?
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Els estunmen
Text and direction: Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs
Musical direction: Fernando Velázquez
Teatre Lliure. Barcelona. Until May 3
