4 - Belbel and the Critics: the Reception of the Plays in Barcelona, Madrid and Beyond

Summary

Having analysed thematic and stylistic features of Belbel’s plays in Chapter 1, I now turn to an examination of the reception of a selection of them, both inside and outside Catalonia. Whereas Chapter 1 was concerned mainly with the plays as literary texts, the present one concentrates on how they have been received in live performance. It draws mainly, but not exclusively, on press reviews, and attempts to judge the extent to which such factors as quality of writing and of production, stage space and national or local taste may have influenced the reception.

In an article written in the TNC’s programme notes to A la Toscana, Enric Gallén comments on how Belbel’s reputation has spread far and wide beyond Catalonia. In his view the international projection of Belbel has been responsible for Catalan drama’s moving from being unknown internationally to becoming ‘a focus of attention for agents and professionals inWestern theatre’. According to Gallén, Belbel has opened the way for the work of other Catalan dramatists to be published and performed in Europe. Indeed, a number of his plays have been performed abroad prior to their Catalan premiere. For instance, Morir (un moment abans de morir) was staged in Finland and Germany before its Romea production, Sóc Lletja received its premiere in Denmark and Norway, and Mòbil and A la Toscana premiered in Denmark. The reception ranges from the highly enthusiastic to the damning, the contrast being especially marked in the case of Mòbil. There is not always uniformity in the reception of any single play, and, as our analysis of Mòbil in particular will demonstrate, this can vary quite wildly from location to location. Drawing on plays from the early 1990s to 2008, this chapter will set out the particulars of the reception and attempt, where appropriate, to offer some explanation for it. The plays chosen have been staged in a number of locations, in Catalonia, Madrid, and cities outside Spain. I have concentrated on premieres of plays at individual centres and not on any later productions.

Carícies

Prior to Mòbil this was probably the Belbel play that received the most negative reaction in his native Catalonia. F. Burguet Ardiaca in the Diari de Barcelona writes disapprovingly of the references to male and female genitalia, and considers the comic element to be ‘superfluous’ (‘supèrflua’), while the playwright is viewed as more of an experimenter than a surgeon.