5 - Belbel and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya

Summary

It is so necessary that I now think that it would be a great loss to spectators in Catalonia to have to do without the TNC. It fulfils a specific function, namely the safekeeping of the Catalan theatrical patrimony, both classical and contemporary.

The development of a culture of national theatres in Europe is complex and varied. Marvin Carlson evokes the established picture of a national theatre, and adds a warning:

The common image of a National Theatre is of a monumental edifice located in a national capital, authorized, privileged and supported by the government, and devoted wholly or largely to productions of the work of national dramatists. Naturally some National Theatres adhere closely to this ideal model, but the vast majority depart from it in one way or another.

Some countries have a building or buildings that bear the name National Theatre, while others, such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, possess a national theatre network. As will be observed in this chapter, the National Theatre of Catalonia fits the ‘ideal’ model evoked by Carlson in some respects but not in others. Various attempts were made to establish a Catalan National Theatre in the early twentieth century, and, in effect, the Teatre Romea in Barcelona was a de facto National Theatre, putting on many plays in Catalan during the first decade of the twentieth century. However, the development was never fully solidified and, between 1911 and 1917, the Romea’s repertoire was exclusively in the Spanish language. Similar efforts to establish a national theatre in Wales also belong to the period around the First World War. Anwen Jones’s comments on the situation in Wales are apposite to what was occurring in Catalonia at the time:

Self-awareness had brought about an impasse, a polarization of those who opted for cultural and linguistic promotion and preservation and those who advocated an ecumenical acceptance of the variety of different cultural and linguistic perspectives and experiences that combined to constitute twentieth-century Wales and, ultimately, put the nation in touch with a wider world, beyond its own national boundaries. Both viewpoints were valid and valuable.