The theater shows you shouldn't miss at the Grec Festival 2025 in Barcelona.

Summer after summer, the Grec Festival never fails to make its mark in Barcelona, ​​imbuing the entire city with top-notch performances . Here, we focus on theatrical productions, which are the heart of the festival. Paradoxically, the Montjuïc Amphitheater is a complex venue for text-based theater, and so the new director has reduced the offerings to two theater productions, with the remainder consisting of music and dance .

The Montjuïc stage hosts Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in the version by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, with the National Classical Theatre Company (18-19/7). And Hécube, pas Hécube, by Tiago Rodrigues, with the Comédie Française, which presents a theatrical essay or, perhaps, a police investigation. The director of the Avignon festival premiered it last summer also in a quarry, like the one that will now host the Barcelona production (28-29/7).

Without leaving the mountain, in the Fabià Puigserver room of the Teatre Lliure, William Kentridge tells this time, using the puppets of the Handspring Puppet Company combined with real-life performers, the story of Faustus in Africa! (27-28/VI). La Tristura presents Renacimiento, a production where technicians and other people who work in the performing arts offer their perspective on half a century of Spanish democracy (5-6/VII). Carolina Bianchi and Cara de Cavalo return to the festival with the second part of the trilogy on sexual violence Cadela Força, this time with The Brotherhood, focusing on the male codes and pacts that include sexual violence in their vocabulary (11-12/VII).

Bertolt Brecht's Moeder Courage will also be presented by Lisaboa Houbrechts and KVS, the anti-war play, duly revisited for the 21st century (16-17/VII). Milo Rau, with the NTGent, will premiere Medea's Kinderen, which deals with the violence inflicted on or suffered by children, based on a police case (21-22/VII).

Michael Cunningham's novel The Hours takes to the stage at the TNC with Eline Arbo and the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam. Based on Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway, three women from different periods in the 20th century struggle to be themselves in a world that limits them (4-6/7).

The Catalan version of Carnations, by Emma Riverola, starring Abel Folk and Silvia Marsó, has already premiered at the Goya Theater. It revisits half a century of democracy in the Iberian Peninsula, beginning with the Carnation Revolution in Portugal (until July 6). It will be followed by El cuarto de atrás, an adaptation of Carmen Martín Gaite's novel by María Folguera and starring Emma Suárez, to celebrate the writer's centenary (July 9-27).

Lluïsa Cunillé premieres 'Compto cada passa meva sobre la terra', with Oriol Genís directed by Albertí, at Atrium

At the Teatro La Biblioteca, Oriol Broggi directs Shakespeare's The Tempest , with Lluís Soler and Clara de Ramon in the roles of Prosper and Miranda (until July 29). And at the Romea, Josep Maria Pou plays the writer Roald Dahl in Mark Rosenblatt's Gegant , directed by Josep Maria Mestres, a highly topical and highly successful play in London about freedom of expression and its consequences, based on the case of the author of Matilda (July 5-Eighth).

At La Villarroel , Sergi Pompermayer's Grand Canyon premieres, a sort of sequel to Amèrica, directed by Pere Arquillué. A play about unfulfilled dreams and second chances, with a cast led by Joan Carreras, Mireia Aixalà, and Guillem Balart (June 6-June 8). As part of the Poliorama per València cycle, Amunt el teló (Amunt el teló), the Rambla theater presents three plays by Valencian companies to support the devastation caused by the hurricane: Waterloo, by Albena Teatre (until June 29); Hoy no prerenamos (Hoy no prerenamos), by L'Om Imprebís (June 30-June 4); and L'últim ball (Ultimate ball), by L'Horta Teatre (June 7-11).

At the Sala Beckett, a Catalan double feature with Helena Tornero and Tu em vas prometre una història d'amor, directed by Israel Solà, a comedy about the difficulties of writing love stories in the 21st century (until July 27). And Josep Maria Miró premieres El monstre, about the individual and collective need to be afraid, based on a retelling of events that occurred in a village in the past (June 3-27).

With 'Grand Canyon', Sergi Pompermayer continues the story that began in 'Amèrica', in La Villarroel

The Atrium venue combines two shows throughout the festival. On the one hand, Decadència, by Steven Berkoff, “a 1981 proposal that takes an almost anthropological look at the upper class, with a modern interpretation; it is a heartbreaking and excessive, even obscene work,” declares Glòria Balañà, who directs Carles Martínez and Míriam Alamany (1-27/VII). And on two Mondays and Tuesdays, Lluïsa Cunillé's new work, Compto cada passa meva sobre la terra, about the chiaroscuros hidden in a seemingly dull life. Xavier Albertí directs Oriol Genís, for whom Cunillé wrote the character (14-15, 21-22/VII). The Consell de Cent venue concludes with a version of Moreno Bernardi's Odyssey (29-31/VII).

Josep Maria Miró premieres 'The Monster' at the Beckett, about the individual and collective need to be afraid.

At the Fundació Brossa, Irene Vicente Salas presents Oasi, which in a city finds itself in a square. The installation can be visited all day, except during performance times (3-6/7). And the double exhibition Autòpsia, by Roberto Fratini, and Autoritat, by Roger Bernat and Søren Evinson (4-5/7).

At the Akadèmia Theatre, the adventure of the exile of the ship Massilia to Buenos Aires, by Albert Boronat and Maria Donoso, directed by Nelson Valente (until 7/6). At La Gleva, with El somni de la senyora Macbeth, Ferran Madico gives a contemporary take on Shakespeare's classic about power, with choreography and performance by Àngela Boix (until 7/7). And at the Heartbreak Hotel Theatre, Dafnis Balduz, directed by Pau Roca, performs Édouard Louis's monologue Qui va matar el meu pare , in which he accuses French President Emmanuel Macron of his father's misfortune (7/1-3).

Irene Vicente Salas presents the installation 'Oasi', like a square in a city, at the Fundació Brossa

At the Mercat de les Flors, the Albanian-born playwright Mario Banushi constructs a visual poem about the relationship between a mother and son in Mami (June 22-23). ​​Oriol Bellvitge will be at the Espai Lliure with Gènesi, a family show that will explore playful ways of creating a new world through responsibility and environmentalism for an hour (June 11-12).

In Barcelona, ​​Kulunka Teatro uses the silent language of masks to combine tenderness and rawness in Forever (June 23-27). At the Teatre Lliure de Gràcia, there will be performances by Alberto Cortés, Roberto Martín, and the Señor Serrano Group. At SAT!, La Maquiné Teatro, and La Petita Malamaluga. Lali Álvarez performs at La Badabadoc...