The billboard has been filled with shows for children, youth, for the whole family and for all audiences. Definitions that classify the type of theater based on the audience they are aimed at, but little on their artistic quality. Some have so much that even if you are not their target audience, it is worth going to see them and for critics to comment on them.
For those people who want to check it, they just have to go to Farra at the Comedy Theatre. A production by the National Classical Theater Company with the Lucas Escobedo Company that invites you to party, that is, to celebrate and have fun. Celebrate what? Whatever you want. And with whom? With the fans of the Spanish classics of the Golden Age, who knew how to celebrate, especially Quevedo, and with whoever you want to take to the theater.
A show with a ‘ronlanlolero’ spirit, in which music plays a main role, but above all the circus acts. Put in a way that it doesn’t seem like they are circus acts until they have been out of the theater for a long time. And you realize because you carry the spirit of revelry and play for a long time, that you will pay attention to the details and remember what you have seen. Discuss it with the people you have gone to see it with or recommend it to family members or friends you are with on these dates.
‘Farra’ is performed at the Comedy Theatre.
A success to have scheduled it and to do it at an unbeatable price to go with the family – from the youngest to the oldest – or not, because it is simply a good show. So much so that as Cirque du Soleil’s artistic directors see it, they find a seed for their next great show, with the Spanish Golden Age as a source of inspiration.
More circus, but not disguised or hidden, is what the traditional Circus Price at Christmas. In this case, the numbers are very good. And the area tapes or straps by the Turkeev Duo is even better than the one you can see right now on Happiness.
The idea is always the same. A children’s adventure, in this case the adventure is to search for EN, the spirit of Christmas, by a group of adult-children who have returned home for Christmas. A search that leads a spectacle of songs, choreography and antics, the simple number on the box is all fun, interspersed with juggling, some excellent acrobats and even soap bubbles. And a fantasy about horse training that cannot be forgotten.
The Price Circus at Christmas.
Are the children having a good time? Canon. And the adults? Also. Curious to see how those who were boys and girls, who their parents probably took to this circus as children, go in groups of friends and behave like children, even more so than children. Nothing is discovered if it is said that the protagonist gang finds the spirit of Christmas. And the public of any age, if they have followed their game, comes out full of this spirit, that is, happy and content.
Don’t go, there’s still more. That more is put by the company Marie de Jongh with mr. Bo in Nave10 of the Madrid Matadero. Troupe well known in Madrid for its shows. This time clearly aimed at including the little ones, without failing to challenge all those who accompany them, and teach them good ways to behave with others through the story of a little despot, Mr. Bo.
A show made like those children’s stories without words, with clear lines and few colors. With well-defined actions. And that spirit and absurd humor that these stories also often have and that the little ones tend to capture better than the older ones.
A scene from Mr Bo, in Nave10 Matadero.
Work done with the usual mastery of this company, but changing the style or forms of what they have done other times. And, yes, this Mr. Bo is a despot, but he is loved and, if they sold him as a doll, I think more than one would ask him for the Three Wise Men. What a shame it’s only there for four days!
Also, for the little ones and the not so little ones, it is made The hedgehog boy which can be seen in the Balcony Room of the Spanish Theater. A show that has been running for more than ten years and it shows, because it is greased, it flows, although everything and all the characters are done by the two performers who are on stage.
A work that, in the style of traditional stories, tells the story of a family of farmers who, due to the lack of children, entrusts themselves to magic. And the result is a child who is also a hedgehog. Of course, he suffers rejection for his tendency to curl up in a ball, eat live caterpillars, not wash himself, and prick him with his quills when you go to hug him. Which gives rise to the need to leave to find your place.
A story that engages very well at the beginning, because it is not lacking in humor, but that perhaps loses the audience when it gets a little more serious. Although it has those characters that remain fixed in the memory and allow the joke or the tagline to be repeated. Like that king who goes out to explore and always gets lost, so his daughter, the princess, has to set limits.
‘The Hedgehog Boy’ can be enjoyed at the Spanish Theater.
For those who are looking for something for older people, such as pre-teens, The world is broken but you can walk, at the Abbey Theater, is the option. Of course, the artistic director of this theater, the playwright Juan Mayorga, could not miss a work like this, which vindicates books, libraries and word games as a way of apprehending the world and what happens to us.
A very well done work by the Basque company Inextremis theater that starts from a sad event, the loss of a mother in an accident – told with enough drama without overloading the inks -, to which a pre-adolescent, initially a little reader, has to cope. A fact that causes sadness, anger, silence and lack of appetite.
Harmful emotions and reactions that, thanks to books, mediated by his father and a librarian, like the one we would all like to have in our primary library, he is able to change them into emotions and reactions that help him continue. To understand that when something breaks, it can continue to be used. How a broken mirror can be turned into a disco crystal ball.
‘The world is broken but you can walk’ at the Abbey Theatre.
Story in which humor is very present, despite everything. And to which Fernando Bernués, the stage director, has known how to give that touch of endearingness, of warmth of home, of normality, of life. Of course, in addition to the cast, he is helped by great authors such as Kafka, Cortázar, Stevenson, Skameta and his novels and stories and many others that Harkaitz Cano, the author of the work, introduced in the story with which he won the Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature in Basque 2024.
At the exit, one of those preteens who were in the room was struck by the astonishment of how the main actress, who initially presents herself as an adult, turns before his eyes into that twelve-year-old girl with whom he somehow can be identified. It was not believed that an adult could represent him so well, that she knew him so well, to be able to behave and react like one of his gang.
‘Dreaming the Carnival of the Animals’ can be enjoyed at the Spanish Theater.
And as an end to the party, of course Dreaming of the animal carnival, in the large room of the Spanish Theater. This puppet work has been touring for many years in the great opera venues, including the Teatro Real and the Gran Teatre del Liceu, inspired by the concert The carnival of the animals by Camille Saint-Saëns and which includes music by Debussy, which is played live by an orchestra.
It is a delight to see how, as the music plays, the animals, large puppets that seem alive, appear on stage and occupy it. Check how music, sound, takes shape and becomes an image and imagination. A piece with a great finale that will surprise everyone.
What’s listed doesn’t work for you? Well, let’s not talk anymore. Look at the billboard, there is a lot of diversity and for all budgets so as not to stay at home or leave adults and/or children at home. This is a small sample of everything that can be found in Madrid on these dates.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.es
