'Homenaje a Lorca' in Festival Lluèrnia
- Iggy Planas
- Nov 12, 2018
- 4 min read
Last weekend I attended with my partners in 'Homenaje a Lorca' (Lorca's Homage) to Olot's festival Lluèrnia. A festival of lights and fire celebrated each November in Olot and its adjacent villages gathering different activities related to these two aspects (light and fire), a festival where our immersive theatre play 'Homenaje a Lorca' (Lorca's Homage) fits in because it plays with chiaroscuros and the fire element is present at every single moment. Hence, La Coquera's members attended Sant Joan Les Fonts' Abbey, around 6km after Olot, on Friday the 9th evening to perform this play for the people in the village and its surroundings.
What is 'Homenaje a Lorca' about?
'Homenaje a Lorca' (Lorca's Homage) is an initiatory tour around Granada's author and poet, where some of his less-known characters appear. It's a proposal stated by dint of contrasts, with chiaroscuro as a place where the magic lies, where anyone can be anything or many things at a time; and the blinding light, as an indisputable truth that burns and equalizes everything, where nuances are not allowed, just annulation and kept silence. A walk around topics like the impossibility of being, the complaints, the oppression of collective fiction, or the mutability of conventions to see the world with new eyes.
Finally, we performed seven shows of the play in the Abbey's backyard's meadow, under open skies on a starry night which added a magical effect to the performance, next to Fluvià river's meadow. To sum up, a place which made the delights of both audience and actors.
Besides the cold weather, the fact of giving an outdoors location to this play also brought a plus in closeness with the audience, because not only closeness was needed when performing very intimate scenes, but also because you were able to feel the audience's proximity for the sake of giving you some corporal warmth, which is something I'm grateful of because it also makes you feel more bonded to them at every single moment during the representation.
When we finished all the shows, at midnight, it could be said that, generally, the opinions of the assisting ones were positive at their most, they had had a great time and the experience has moved them for good, something I'm thankful for (since it's one of the looked aims). I also remember there was someone who dignified and highlighted the importance of the blinded guides inside the play, something that resonated with me personally since I portray one of those guides in the play, and something I'm also thankful for.
A million thanks to all the assisting ones who attended the play, we hope to have fulfilled your expectations of what you were looking for. Taking into account the critiques received, I might deduce that you had a great time with us and, besides I wasn't able to see your faces after each show due to the script requirements, I could feel through small gestures, reactions or some other comment that what you were watching on scene was being enjoyed and was felt through the heart, which is very comforting.
I also want to acknowledge the staff in festival Lluèrnia for all their support and help given during our time there, for giving us some dinner inside the abbey and some housing in such an amazing place as Torre Malagrida Hostel, a manor house of 19th c. Catalan bourgeoisie that has been rebuilt as a hostel but keeps conserving its main structure and its original colossal furnishing. I hope that staff members of the festival had enjoyed the private show we performed before the play's start, that you've been moved by it, and it was useful to take a good memory of us in order to invite us to future editions of festival Lluèrnia.
Finally, I want to congratulate and say thank you to the rest of the cast and crew members in 'Homenaje a Lorca', it's quite noticeable that this is a play with some path behind, and it's maturing little by little. Though we didn't perform it for some time (since February 2018) and we had new incorporations in the cast, we are able to take it forward show after show to perform in places we couldn't expect. I also want to thank Carmen Ibáñez for giving us her time and talent with photography, coming with us to Olot in order to give us some more photographic material for this play. I also want to acknowledge Alberto Rizzo (director) and Jordi Lafuente (director's assistant) fpr this unique opportunity, for their patience and courage when facing this play outdoors and, in general terms, for their advice, help, and for counting on me in this project Every time we take some project on tour, the experience is useful to strengthen our bonds with our partners and creating new ones, so now I'm counting the days for taking 'Homenaje a Lorca' back and perform it again outside Barcelona!
The following day, on Saturday 10th morning, some of us decided to make a small tour around Olot, because it has wonderful colors in Autumn in its avenues filled with trees. After walking around the city center's streets, we stopped to have a small brunch in order to renew our strengths to take the way back home, taking back with me such a great memory of the experience liven in Olot and festival Lluèrnia during these two last days,
'Homenaje a Lorca' (Lorca's Homage) makes a brief stop on its way, now we have no more confirmed dates for this year though it will be great to have one last gig in December in order to close this 2018 with a good flavor. Now, you will have to wait. If you want to stay tuned about the news in this project, you can follow La Coquera Teatro on its social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in order to get informed about future representations of this play and more.
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