Lluïsa Cunillé and Xavier Albertí meet for the 28th time, now at Grec

In 1994, Xavier Albertí directed a work by Lluïsa Cunillé for the first time. This summer, more than three decades later, the playwright and director will celebrate their 28th collaboration, this time as part of the Grec Festival. The piece is titled "Compto cada passa meva sobre la terra" (Compto cada passa meva on the terra), and Cunillé wrote it with the performer who will premiere it in mind: Oriol Genís.

Xavier Albertí points out what this work entails in the presentation of the Icub: "It's a man who is about to undergo heart surgery. Lluïsa creates a kind of oxymoron of penance. It seems that the character has had an uneventful life running a kiosk, which is a business that has changed a lot in recent years. During all that time, he has learned to observe people and read their lips. Chance has meant that in that hospital room there is another man who has not always obeyed the correct rules, and that will lead our kiosk owner to end up confessing surprising things."

La Mula ('Tauma') and Agrupación Señor Serrano debut their summer offerings in Barcelona.

Actor Oriol Genís sums up the play as a balance between "legality and legitimacy." "Sometimes, laws have to be broken in some way, because they aren't always fair. In the play, the man performs an exercise in absolute humility." This luxury trio's performance can be seen at the Atrium theater from July 14 to 22.

But Lluïsa Cunillé's new work isn't the only one presented yesterday at the Grec press conference. After the success of Tauma, La Mula's evocative offering, this summer she will premiere Manual per a éssers vius (CCCB, 17-18/7).

Andreu Martínez states: “After Tauma, which focused on images, astonishing us with the marvelous things in this world, here we've taken the everyday things that surprise us, and we've chosen one: the word, humanity's second invention after fire. It's like the B-side of Tauma, of how we are amazed by some things.” Magda Puig adds: “The audience will encounter a theatrical machine that speaks to them. The text is the protagonist. There are moments of collective culture. As if it were an analog subtitle machine, trying to explain itself and playing with language with the audience.” And Martínez points out: “It's also an old-fashioned fairground stall and a contemporary theatrical booth.”

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Another top-tier company, Agrupación Señor Serrano, premieres Història de l'amor (History of Love) at the Grec (Teatre Lliure de Gràcia, 18-20 July). “There's a performer who tells her personal stories and activates small theatrical devices that speak to different historical periods, and they intertwine. Everything revolves around love,” says Cristina Cubells of this 15th show by the company, now in a smaller format with the performer Anna Pérez Moya.

Dafnis Balduz will tell the story Édouard Louis wrote when he was just 24, and which he himself performed, directed by Thomas Ostermeier: Qui va matar el meu pare (Qui va matar el meu pare). Pau Roca has adapted and directed the original novel, which he describes as "a love letter, also filled with reproaches, to his father." "There's also a social outcry: how toxic masculinity is constructed, how a child suffers homophobic microattacks. Every small political movement shapes our lives," he concludes. The monologue will premiere at the Heartbreak Hotel (1-3/VII), where it will be rescheduled in October.