On the company

We are dealing here with a phenomenon, exceptional within the world of theatre: Els Joglars. The body of stage work they have produced over the years, apart from the occasional diversion into satire, has consistently offered the public stage productions of an undeniable quality. Dramatic inventiveness, rigorously crafted performances and visual surprise have been the trademarks of the company throughout its history. In show after show, Albert Boadella and the troupes of artists and technicians who have worked under the name of Els Joglars, or occasionally under other names, have offered their public the chance to flavour the remarkable range of expression that, when placed in their hands, can be achieved by the two essential elements in theatre: actor and space.

Nobody can fail to be aware of the fact that, in the theatre, forty years is a very long time. Even more so if over that whole period the company succeeds in maintaining a line of work stamped with a particular style that is perfectly defined but remains completely valid. And, yet despite the enormous changes undergone by the society within which they work, and notwithstanding their own desire to constantly update their theatrical language and the not always easy comings and goings that have been part of their history, the theatre of Els Joglars has maintained a stylistic coherence that can only be described, at the very least, as singular.

The style of Els Joglars is based on their refusal to abandon two essential creative concepts: their own method of work and the rooting of their creations in deeply held personal convictions. Two traits - seny i rauxa? (the typically Catalan elements of down-to-earth pragmatism and a certain penchant for outbursts of riotous behaviour) – taunting each other for forty years: the one, wanting at whatever price to dissect the truth on stage, to plumb the very depths of the hypothesis that marks the starting point for each new theatrical adventure; and the other, no less fanatical, demanding formal inventiveness and technical rigour from beginning to end.

It has probably been this particular pairing of method and imagination, defended in tooth and claw by Albert Boadella ever since he took charge of the company that was to bring him fame, that has led the aesthetics and ethics of their theatre to generate, since their early days, such an original style. What is true is that over these last forty years Els Joglars have demonstrated that theatre continues to be a living art, that is an art that is anything but closed in its forms, has far from exhausted its subject matter and occupies a space that is clearly different from those of literature, television, museums and the generalised theme park in which we dwell.

Els Joglars. La guerra dels 40 anys.

Life in Pruit holds no mysteries, at least none other than those offered by the very special geography of the area of Collsacabra, with its cliffs slashed by plummeting ravines up which scrambled medieval paths, with a scattering of solitary chapels and abandoned farmhouses, reminders of past times. Collsacabra is an upland plateau covered with beech and birch woods, sheltering the shy woodcock. At a thousand metres above sea level the clean air refreshes the mind and the winter cold invites meditation. The contact with the local people – the manor houses like Cal Fatjó conserve deeds and other documents from the 11th century - is a source of realism; it brings down to earth even wild comedians like ourselves, and has an overall positive effect. I believe that someone like the carpenter, painter, landscape artist and great woodcock hunter Benet Sarsenedes represents the magnificent qualities of some of the Collsacabra people. (Mester de joglaria)

The rehearsal space is a polyester dome that stands just to the west of the church and cemetery in Pruit. This sacred spot stands on a rise that gives views in all four directions over the magical setting that is Collsacabra. Since the dome does not have any internal supporting structure it offers a completely clear round space, without any preconceived orientation; this in turn determines the spatial correlation of the working method, which does not have any directions marked when work begins. The cúpula is an empty space, a creative womb impregnated with possibilities that progressively appear out of the actors’ improvisations.

The existence and the characteristics of this space demonstrate clearly the importance of the concept of space in the work of the company. Or to put it another way, the cúpula reveals Albert Boadella’s special sensibility with regard to space. And here I am not referring to his sensibility towards the spaces his productions require, nor to their final staging. Rather I am speaking about the importance he has always given to the place where the creative work is done.

The geodesic dome is a space in which the centre is the actor, the real source out of which the drama must flow. Clean, at the moment of beginning the creative process, the space throws up questions at the same time as encouraging the magical confluence of the multitude of interactive spatial possibilities. It is a space without pre-established stage directions that determine and shape the movements of the actors nor does it present a pre-set perspective for the person who has to conduct the work with the double vision of both miracle worker and spectator, that is, the director. The outside world, when necessary, disappears, though the constant evidence provided by the technological installation that is also the cúpula ensures that reality remains healthily within reach. A technological installation capable of meeting all that is required by the production process, from the initial emptiness to the progressive composition of spatial directions, the introduction of elements and the incorporation of lighting and sound when necessary. In fact, when an Els Joglars production leaves the geodesic dome it is finished and rehearsed down to the finest detail, both artistically and technically (though the distinction between these two is difficult to define in this company) and ready to be loaded onto the lorries that will carry the show to its first destination.
The idea that the spaces within which a production is created condition, with their atmosphere and their dimensions, many of the ideas that spring from the inventiveness of the actors and the director is quite easy to accept when you see Els Joglars at work in the cúpula. The frontality, the real three-dimensionality, the verticality of a space determine even more than might be thought the results of the group’s dramatic inventiveness. Leaving imagination to one side, the physical space conditions the physical disposition of the creators.

The physical conditions one sets for theatrical works speak volumes for the concept one has of this work. Today, it is possible to appreciate in the custom-built theatre spaces in Catalunya, often lavishly conceived, a substantial conceptual distance between them and the theatrical conception of Boadella. Between the geodesic dome surrounded by nature and, for example, the acting classes of the new Institut de Teatre in Barcelona, set in a basement four floors below street level, totally cut off from the world just outside, there lies a difference in the vision of the tempo of the creativity. Between the black box that leaves the actors permanently subjected to the power of spotlights, and always with a wall nearby, in a space whose depth is tangible and ever present, as in the outlandishly designed theatre spaces of one of the most important schools of drama in Europe, and the luminous space, with its complete absence of directional coercion that is the cúpula in Pruit, there is a gulf in terms of the possibility of finding the creative tempo of the actor and the director.

Seeing the work of creating within the dome one can’t help thinking that what seems like the living space of ‘B’ film extraterrestrials is an excellent place in which to recreate the world with a perspective that is distant yet at the same time seriously committed. With the distance, why not, of an orbiting space station, with Els Joglars reviewing the world from within their dome, perplexed like the MIR astronauts who while circling the Earth saw their country disappear. Seeing the world as some distant thing that is continually changing in order to continue, God willing, the same as before, or worse. Els Joglars/Espais. Joan Abellan

With time, the work complex of Els Joglars was completed with the setting up of a residence not far from the cúpula, where the team live during the process of creating a new production. El Llorà, with its comfortable rooms, spaces for relaxing and for working meetings, with a large open space around the house for sports and other outdoor activities, has made Els Joglars into an international point of reference. At El Llorà, Els Joglars have given courses and even, as we shall see in later chapters, produced hyper-realistic dramatic simulations of matters connected with some of the company’s productions.
Sharing everyday life with the members of Els Joglars at El Llorà during periods of creative work one glimpses the value of time and space as ‘natural’ elements for the regulation of mental and physical energy required by their working methods.
Els Joglars/Espais. Joan Abellan

"On arriving on the upland plateau of Collsacabra, the road descends gently towards Rupit; three kilometres before the village, where a broad track leads off to the left, there is a sign indicating El Llorà. The track runs through woodland until, on reaching a clearing, a splendid mansion appears surrounded by enormous spruce trees, sequoias and cedars.
“In early 1983 el Bufón was offered the chance to buy the property by one of the sons of the owner, with whom he had a very good relationship. This man’s grandmother, Doña Tecla Sala, a wealthy widow with substantial textile interests, commissioned the architect Francesc Folguera to build the house, completed in 1935, as well as the landscaping of the surroundings which were transformed into an immense park. The architect, an enormously cultivated man, responsible in later years for the Mussolinian façade of the basilica at Montserrat, took his inspiration for this commission from the theories and works of his Czech counterpart, Adolf Loos, taking great pains to produce a highly comfortable, though austere, house. The design of the rooms and installations is a paragon of good sense. El Llorà is built on a small rise, giving the house incomparable panoramic views from the massif of Montseny to the Pyrenees. The rear façade presides over a broad swathe of lawn, with small ornamental ponds in the middle and rows of majestic cedars on either side forming a splendid avenue. At the end of this miniature Versailles is a tennis court and a large swimming pool surrounded by spruce trees."

(...) "Up until that time the company had rented various houses in the area to accommodate its members; from then on, El Llorà was to fulfil the same function, but now to the perfection. The house seemed to have been expressly designed with this end in mind: each of the twelve large bedrooms had its own bathroom; there were numerous meeting rooms, a large dining room, workshop, etc."

(...)"Instead of entering the house through the main door, Jesús made us pass through the side door into the kitchen; once inside he began a dissertation on the importance of this room of hotplates and pots and pans, relating it directly with the good working of the group. There gathered the whole troupe after rehearsing, a little cramped owing to the small size of the kitchen. Among the bustle of the dishes that Montserrat, the housekeeper, went on preparing, the conversation took off, seasoned as always with that special sarcasm reserved for any subject that hinted at transcendence, though this did not prevent all these sceptics in any other subject from the transcendental imbibing of a good wine or the exquisite llonganissa produced after the most recent pig-killing. The combination of the taste for both good food and the intangible capriciousness of the situation ensured a good balance, despite the evident militancy of the company. The breakfast was, then, as important as the rehearsal they had just completed in the cúpula." Memòries d'un Bufó. Albert Boadella

Whenever I see Albert work it comes to me that he uses the same procedure as a painter. He observes, meticulously, the depths of the chosen theme from all points of view and sketches the reality analysed before deciding to transform it into art and committing it to canvas. He paints and composes much as we might imagine an impressionist working: from within, in order to better understand the nature of the matter, its music, its light, its atmosphere, involving himself with the actors; never does he work as the solitary writer locked in his study, poring over sheets of paper or a computer. Every scene becomes a realist painting, his work as a whole a symphony.

On the method

In order that everyone can understand how Albert works the theatrical pieces with the actors, he has named his method the emerging method. He has tried to explain it graphically in terms of a spiral: that is, revolving around a fixed point with the aim of extending the possibilities in order to redefine it. He has compared it with the deductive processes of Georges Simenon’s character, Commissioner Maigret: investigate a matter, shatter it into a thousand shards, examine them one by one and look for clues with which to find the proof that will make sense of his discourse. And truly this is how he works, and when he says that his method is based precisely on not having any method, it is the definition that best fits with his way of doing and being. A philosophy based on experimenting, on proving through playing. He realises his mistakes. Doubts. Searches. Excludes and renews, until the find appears. On discovering the synthesis, the poetry emerges.

Preface to the first volume of the works of Albert Boadella. Lluís Elias

EMERGINH METHOD

Our way of constructing a work is essentially the antithesis of that of a tragedy. In tragedies colossal forces are at work, unstoppable and precise machinations that propel fate or destiny according to the inexorable laws of the Parcae. Man commits an act, intentionally or by chance, an error or a desire, driven by passions or swayed by ignorance and, once done, the forces of fate unfold the inevitable consequences. All that follows is simple mathematical deduction or the workings of a blindly logical machine.

Generally speaking in our works there are no chains of forces driving the action nor the workings of any universal laws that act over and above the characters. Many times we take the situation as the elementary unit of our theatre, the basic cell of the body of the work, and thus in the same way a scientist deduces a whole world by analysing a micro-cosmos, we work to do the same but starting with an action, a few words or a gesture.

Hence we often find ourselves nearer to the process performed by the musician or the painter than to traditional literary procedures, especially where this is the core of a theatrical work, imposing the indisputable primacy of the word over and above other languages of the stage.

Albert Boadella

ON THE THEMES OF THE WORKS. THE FORGOTTEN RITUAL

Far from the infernal Babel, half way between the divine and the worldly, Albert looks up and bites. And if he glances down, it is to jolt us, without compassion, and incite us to move towards the impossible. This is the axis around which Albert Boadella’s works revolve: power and individual freedom. Then he looks for a way to materialise these two concepts. He searches for a theme, chooses a character or a situation and, starting with an anecdote, he reorganises the whole of this universe to make it comprehensible. The result is a work of theatre which tries to reach the collective subconscious in order to free it from its anguish. That’s all. As complicated as that. Themes that shun the clichés of cheap psychology and instead serve as a radiography of social behaviours. It’s not a question of talking about ourselves, of navel gazing, of exploring our fears and our desires, or some hidden morality, but rather of diagnosing the illness of the world we live in and searching for an antidote: the smile. He directly attacks those apparently solid structures to demonstrate that they are weaker than we imagine. But not to destroy them - only to expose their fragility. Nationalism, genocide, progressiveness, religious rites, justice..., universal themes, ‘dangerous’ themes, considered, therefore, untouchable. And he laughs, as an artist laughs. And this has meant that the theatre of Albert Boadella retains that which seemed to have been forgotten: ritual. Theatre as a communitary art. A theatre that, as befits art, provokes and allows us to connect with our society in order to discover that which is hidden. Nothing could be further then from mere superficial entertainment. If the art of theatre advances in parallel to our society, and this is in its death throes, then theatre reflects this. There’s no need to resort to modernisms in order to expose vanity and other human ‘products’, it’s enough to consider that the general public is capable of laughing at itself. A tragicomedy. The sense of humour as a thermometer to measure the intelligence of a country.

Preface to the first volume of the works of Albert Boadella. Lluís Elias

Communication, the meaning of life, tragedy, competitiveness, the relations between couples, banditry, justice, the destruction of the planet, Mediterranean myths, progressiveness, personal power, everyday psychopathologies and human weaknesses, religions, national stereotypes, the de facto powers, the genocide involved in the conquest of the Americas, theatre, nationalism, the artist, art... We would struggle to find such a variety and such ambition anywhere else in our contemporary theatre.

(...) The plots and the characters of Els Joglars normally involve simple concepts. In general, however, behind the more or less schematic story line or characters of an Els Joglars production, there is a profoundly universal vision of the mechanisms of social alienation on which power feeds and perpetuates itself.
The theatre of Els Joglars speaks about power by examining all the varieties of oppression that some individuals exercise over others, some ideologies over others. And it does so almost always by unmasking power as risible fraud.

(...) It is in the insistence on alternating themes that we find one of the notable characteristics of his career. We might also confer the status of characteristic on his recurrent taste for making the various thematic lines converge at the root of one single argument. This tendency to a polyhedral theatre, so typical of Els Joglars, we see growing show after show (...) And another factor no less crucial in the style of Els Joglars is the ideological clarity with which the themes they deal with are addressed, no matter how compromising they might be. (...) in the productions of Els Joglars the point of view of the author is transparent. When on some occasions the critics or the public have spoken about ideological ambiguity, as happende with Olympic Man Movement or Floit & Pla, the ambiguity was in fact the theme being explored.

Els Joglars/Espais. Joan Abellan