Barcelona's theater scene expands with nine new venues

There are nine confirmed, but it could easily be ten. From September 2023 until this week, five new venues have expanded Barcelona's stage offerings, contributing to and taking advantage of the city's strong performances, which have consolidated three million spectators and achieved a record-breaking box office tally of 94.1 million.

The first was the intimate Heartbreak Hotel theater, which Àlex Rigola opened two years ago and is beginning its third season with Rosa Renom performing La majordoma by Josep Maria Miró. A few months later, in January 2024, the legendary Texas de Gràcia theater reopened with two movie theaters and a new theater space with seating on both sides. Since August 20, the Espai Texas season has been underway, also featuring a Miró play: Il principi d'Arquimedes .

The City Council has already begun the remodeling of the Arnau and has the Capitol project pending.

Last November, the new Atrium opened its doors, in the same place it had been, but with twice the space. Starting tomorrow, Oriol Genís will perform Compto cada passa meva sobre la Terra, the play by Lluïsa Cunillé, directed by Xavier Albertí, which premiered at the Grec. The remodeled Muntaner theater also opened its doors with the super-successful and unstoppable Corta el cable rojo.

And this week, a new space joins the scene: La Fàbrica, which, along with La Gleva, is the new Teatres del Farró, a reference to the Sant Gervasi neighborhood where they are located. The world premiere will be tomorrow, Tuesday, with Virginia Woolf's play, Freshwater, written and directed by Albert Arribas.

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To these five new venues, we must now add those already on the way. Focus has already announced that it has secured all the necessary permits and is launching the construction of a new theater and performing arts school in Poblenou. In honor of the theater group from which its founders originate, the theater will be called Gènesis, as it is the origin of the large performing arts group, which today includes four theaters in Barcelona and one in Madrid.

Barcelona City Council is also playing a part in this booming theater scene. On the one hand, renovation work is already underway on the Arnau Theater, the iconic Paral·lel theater, the last example of a theater in the city. On the other hand, the City Council also announced that it was taking over the Capitol Theater, the popular Can Pistoles Theater, located at the top of La Rambla and with two theaters.

In the Raval district is the theater of the same name, which actor and director Pep Tosar took over and is awaiting renovation. This brings the total to nine, but there could still be a tenth if the project being carried out by Forty Entertainment, with Martí Font and Cristina Oliva at the helm, goes beyond the production of Supersàpiens (explained on the previous page) and goes further.