Els Joglars receives the award recognizing his career coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the legendary Catalan company
Fifteen theatre, music and dance performances for almost a month. That’s the menu offered by the San Javier Fest, for its 52nd edition, which will take place between August 5 and 25. The mayor of the municipality, José Miguel Luengo, and the director of the event, David Martínez, presented this Tuesday the programming of one of the oldest festivals in the region of Murcia. “The victory is in coming back and coming back for another year, until we get to 2,000,” said Martínez.
The director referred to the fact that this summer pre-pandemic normality will be restored and that “San Javier will have the best of the performing arts of the moment for three weeks”. Luengo underlined the organization’s efforts to meet the public on the street with four free shows and emphasized its “direct and municipal” management. In addition, the next inauguration of a winter theater next to the auditorium of the Almansa Park progressed.
The San Javier Fest kicks off on August 5 with Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, who returns to San Javier with ‘Tocororo’, an important show in his career because of its autobiographical character and because it marked the beginning of his career as a choreographer. ‘Tocororo’, which premiered in 2003 in Cuba and London, where it was a resounding success, with classical, contemporary and Cuban movements, with original music by Miguel Nuñez, was re-released in 2016 in a ‘suite’ version and has now been updated and adapted back to his company of Cuban dancers, Acosta Danza.
The festival features one of the theatrical surprises of the season, ‘Villa y Marte’, a ‘comic-lyrical farce of mutated chulapas’. This is how the Ron Lalá company defines it, a fixture in recent editions of the festival, returning on August 7th. ‘Villa y Marte’ is a collective creation with which the Madrid-based company reinvents the small genre, with humor, live music, theatre, science fiction and chotis.
As every year, the San Javier Theater Group will have many years of space to honor the 53-year anniversary of what began as an amateur theater competition promoted by the local group at the time. On this occasion, on August 9, they present a version of ‘Antígona’, the heroine of Sophocles, performed by Manuel Canseco and JL Sánchez Matas, directed by Manuel Brun and José Antonio Navas.
One of the most frequent and long-awaited returns to the festival, since its origin, is that of Els Joglars, who this edition will receive the Award in recognition of his entire career, coinciding with his 60th birthday. On August 11, Els Joglars presents his latest show in the auditorium of San Javier, ‘Que Sal Aristófanes!’, a tribute to the king of comedy and a critical look at the limits of morality and freedom of expression, led by Ramon Fontserè . Political correctness and its dangers are in the crosshairs of the mythical Catalan company with a story about a professor in a psychiatric hospital who claims the purity of art and culture, closely followed by those in charge of the center.
Theater director Pep Antón Gómez returns to direct Plauto’s ‘Miles Gloriosus’, which opens on August 13, a few days after its premiere at the Mérida Classical Theater Festival, co-producing the show with Arequipa Producciones. Carlos Sobera leads the cast of this funny sitcom adapted by Antonio Prieto.
After the success of ‘Lehman Trilogy’, which can be seen in San Javier in 2018, Sergio Peris Mencheta repeats with the same author, Stefano Massinik, with the adaptation of ‘Ladies Futbol Club’, a resounding success with critics and the public, after his recent premiere in Bilbao and his time at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid. The date is August 15. Peris Mencheta gives a musical format, with original music by Litus Ruiz, to this story about the origins of women’s football in the United Kingdom during the First World War, when women filled the factories and started kicking a ball during intermission.
On August 17, enjoy ‘La Infamia’, a play based on the book ‘Memorias de una Infamia’, by Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho, who was kidnapped and tortured by the police in 2005 for suspecting the involvement of important personalities of the country in a network of pederasty. Lydia Cacho edits the text herself, in the form of a monologue, together with José Martret, director of the play, played by the Murcian actress Marta Nieto.
The San Javier Festival will also get back the acclaimed ‘Fairfly’, from the Catalan company La Calorica, which received the Max Award for Best New Show in 2018 and is now on display for the first time in the Murcia region on August 18. ‘Fairfly’ is a biting comedy about neoliberal discourse, entrepreneurship and the idea of financial success, starring four friends who decide to launch their business idea after entering an ERE.
Shakespeare’s usual visit to the San Javier International Festival of Theatre, Music and Dance will arrive on August 19 with ‘Twelfth Night’, one of his funniest and freshest works, under the guarantee of the direction of Helena Pimenta and her company, UR Teatro , specialists in English author.
Music arrives in the final piece at the festival, on August 20, with Airel Rot and Kiko Veneno and their ‘A Land to Hear’ tour, a follow-up to the television program of the same name. The two musicians, united by the coherence of their respective careers, take the stage in each city with a different concert for the guests and the surprises of each show in which they will also treat their own hits and share anecdotes and stories with the audience.
The festival will bid farewell on August 25 with ‘Paraíso Perdido’, a work based on John Milton’s poem of the same name, directed by Andrés Lima, co-produced with Barcelona’s Grec 2022 Festival, Teatre Romea and the National Drama Center. The work, written by Helena Tornero, is a contemporary take on the work published in 1667 by Milton and the Satan who draws the English classic as a rebel against tyranny, and in this case also pays tribute to the comedian for his demonization by throughout history.
All performances start at 10:30 PM, except ‘FairFly’, which starts at 10 PM. The price of the tickets, which will go on sale in the coming days, will for the most part be between 18 and 22 euros, depending on the region, except ‘Tocorro’, which costs 20-25 euros. As for ‘Fairfly’, the single ticket costs 15 euros; ‘Antigone’, 12-15 euros; and the concert of Ariel Rot and Kiko Veneno, 30 euros for a single ticket. The price of the subscription, which includes all shows except Ariel Rot and Kiko Veneno and ‘FairFly’, will be 125 euros. Tickets will go on sale online and in person at the Festivals office from next week.
The 52 San Javier International Festival of Theatre, Music and Dance also has four family and street shows scheduled to take place in Santiago de la Ribera (two of them), in San Javier and in La Manga del Mar Menor. On August 12, ‘Aquiles’ will arrive at the Paseo Colón in Santiago de la Ribera, with a height of more than 5 meters and a weight of almost 800 kilos, with a show of enormous visual impact, by La Fam Teatre, at one of the great heroes of Greek mythology.
On August 14, the Príncipe de Asturias Cultural Center in Santiago de la Ribera will host ‘Los Músicos de Bremen’, a musical by Nacho Villar Producciones, directed by Jorge Fullna, about the adventures of the four animals who come together to fulfill their dream of being a musician in Bremen.
On August 16, in the Plaza de España in San Javier, the show “El Hito” will take place by Les brillen del 23, a French circus company that will display its “petit-volant” trapeze, as part of a show for the whole family with many humor, magic and acrobatics through the best songs of his career spanning more than 20 years.
The company UpArte will arrive on August 22 with its show DESproVISTO at the Tomás Maestre port in La Manga del Mar Menor. It is a contemporary circus work for all audiences with a high acrobatic technical level that combines balance, aesthetics, humor and contemporary dance as a novelty in the history of the company. All family and outdoor shows are free and start at 10pm.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
