D-Agoll Dagom

CORE THEATRE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert DAGOLL DAGOM. MAR I CEl. l Y88 D-AGOLL DAGOM THEDAGOLL DAGOM THEATRE GROUP BEGAN ITS ADVENTURE IN 1974 AND MADE ITS NAME WITH "ANTAVIANA" IN 1979. SINCETHEN, ITS SHOWS HAVE MADE THEMSELVES DESERVEDLY POPULAR INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CATALANAREA. XAVIER BRU DE SALA AUTHOR heatre audiences in Barcelona tre arose from the cultural movement give just one example, the success of the %reabout to reach the one mil- that opposed the Franco dictatorship. inauguration and closure of the Barcelo- lion a year mark, a figure close Most of the persecuted or minority na Olympic Games was largely due to to the average for audiences in the thea- groups of the alternative theatre of the some of these groups: Comediants, el tre centres of Europe. This figure is large- seventies have now blossomed into Tricicle, La Fura dels Baus, etc. ly due to stage productions that show imaginative and popular companies The part played by Dagoll Dagom in none of the conventionalism or the pure that have given Catalan theatre a repu- the birth and the growing success of commercialism of other places. Barcelo- tation here, in Spain and abroad as contemporary Catalan theatre has been na is an imaginative city, a tenitory amongst the most solidly original. Their decisive. The directors of the company, ripe for 'creativity. The success of con- presence at festivals is often accompa- Joan Lluis Bozzo, Anna Rosa Cisquella temporary Catalan theatre vouches for nied by their noisy anival on the bill- and Miquel Periel, adopted the strategy this. This is an interesting state of af- boards of many cities, from Madrid to of offering the public alternative theatre fairs if you remember that the new thea- Paris, from New York to Sidney. To though without abandoning creativity THEATRE DAGOLL DAGOM. FLOR DE NIT. 1992 as the keystone to their productions. na (1979), was a selection of stories by proach, previously more imaginative, The companies named above, Dagoll the writer Pere Calders which had never with a more closely defined personality. Dagom and others such as Els ~oglars been conceived for the stage. Another After attracting the interest of a broad and La Cubana all have two features in example is Glups (1983), an ironic and new public who helped to consolidate common: they create their own shows self-critical quasi-musical about the gen- the independent theatre, Joan Lluis on the basis of a more or less joint effort eration of 1968, incorporating stories Bozzo's company set out on the adven- and they each build up a characteristic, by Gerard Lauzier, a well-known ture of introducing the musical to Bar- unmistakable stage language of their French writer of comics. The new show celona, and from there to the whole of own. Dagoll Dagom shares these defin- launched by the company this year Spain. The result is that in the last few ing traits, but is a case apart, as they (1995), T'odio, amor meu, makes use of years, following the success of their ini- generally resort to already existing or stories by the North-American writer tiative, which others have followed, specially commissioned literary texts as Dorothy Parker and music by Cole Por- musicals have become a permanent fix- a basic element of the show. So while ter, from which it builds up a show ture on the billboards of Barcelona and repertory companies everywhere are about remoteness and disillusionment Madrid. Dagoll Dagom have always en- trying to distinguish themselves in the in the life of couples. larged the theatre-going public. way directors and authors reinterpret The musical Mar i cel(1988), the great- Now, twenty years after they began, and already existing texts which unfailingly est Catalan theatre hit of al1 times, with with the experience and technical skills form the basis of their productions, the 375,000 spectators in Barcelona alone, they have acquired in this time, the groups that write their own shows can took the plot of the same name by Angel company is returning to its own type of let their imagination roam more freely, Guimera (1854-1 924), the solidest theatre: the critique of the customs and with the only limitation of their own playwright of the Catalan tradition, as morals of the different social groups of dramatic creativity. Dagoll Dagom oc- the basis for the first great Anglo- our time, with cutting irony in a light- cupies an intermediate position, almost Saxon-style musical to emerge in the hearted, almost festive wrapping. Hav- always using stories or texts with which theatre of Southern Europe. Their pre- ing met the artistic and production cha- the company identifies and which it re- vious production, which Dagoll Dagom llenges of the large-scale -musical and works and interprets freely and respect- saw as a preparation by which the com- passed with flying colours, Dagoll Da- fully, while at other times working with pany could learn the ropes of the mu- gom is once more mixing their own literary collaborators in the production sical, was El mikado. Following that, with imagination, the words of a writer and of its shows. the success of Mar i cel, Dagoll Dagom songs, to offer the public their view of The company's first great hit, Antavia- made a change from their usual ap- reality. ¤ .

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