The Grec Festival de Barcelona is an opportunity to see major productions in Barcelona by international creators who, during the summer, put the Catalan capital on the map of their tours. This year is no exception: there are internationally acclaimed masters of the stage, dance and circus who pass through Barcelona. What’s more, the Grec has an even closer relationship with one of Europe’s leading living arts festivals: the Festival d’Avinyó, with whom it shares some of its productions.

One of these productions is by the Polish Krzysztof Warlikowski (Elizabeth Costello; 6 and 7 July. It will be seen at the Palau dels Papes in Avinyó and, in Barcelona, as the director’s debut, at the TNC) or the one proposed by the Catalan-French Baró d’evel (Blai Mateu and Camille Decourtye, presenting Qui som?), at Teatre Grec, from 25 to 27 July, but also debuting next year in Avinyó with the same staging.

We will also be able to see the Catalan Angélica Liddell, who presents DÄMON. El funeral de Bergman (Teatre Lliure Montjuïc; from 19 to 21 July), but who also opens next year’s Avinyó Festival with the same piece, also at the Palau dels Papes.

The London-born bailaora with Ghanaian and Jamaican roots Yinka Esi Graves, who on 25 July will star in an action at MACBA related to an exhibition by the audiovisual artist Wu Tsang, will also be at the Avinyó Festival this year, on 18 July. The same goes for Lola Arias, a great Argentinian director who works both on stage and behind the camera. Not long ago she presented the film Reas at the Berlin Film Festival, and now she is premiering Los días afuera in Barcelona and at the Avinyó Festival (Teatre Lliure Montjuïc, 13 and 14 July; on the image. Photo: Eugenia Kais), a stage and musical version of the story of women and non-binary people who recover their lives after having been imprisoned.

The Festival of Avinyó will be closed by the same Catalan artist who will open next year’s Grec: Sílvia Pérez Cruz who, in her task of presenting the songs from her album Toda la vida, un día, brings her show Circular to Barcelona (from 26 to 28 July, at the Teatre Grec) and, with it, the whole of the Sílvia Pérez Cruz Universe.

Check out the rest of the programme of the Grec 2024 Festival de Barcelona because, beyond the complicities of the Avinyó Festival, there are some great names from the international stage, including Jan Lauwers and the Needcompany with two shows (28-30 June, at the Teatre Lliure Montjuïc) focusing on the most violent Shakespeare (Billy’s Violence) and the funniest Shakespeare (Billy’s Joy).

Johann Le Guillerm, a genius of the European circus, brings to the Grec a performative conference, Le Pas Grand Chose, which will take you into the always confusing territory of pataphysics (from 30 June to 2 July, at the Mercat de les Flors), while a visual and performative artist, Serge Attukwey Clottey, brings from Ghana Periferia Cimarronas a series of performances, Els homes de carbó (3 July), which accompany his intervention (Més enllà de la pell) on the façade of the Fundació Tàpies.

Among the great little pearls of the festival, Lapis Lazuli, a different and extremely suggestive proposal by the Greek Euripidis Laskaridis. It is necessary to see him in action (Mercat de les Flors; ten 13 and 14) to realise how fascinating his show is.

The Brazilian Christine Jatahy brings her vision of Hamlet. En els plecs del temps to the stage (Teatre Lliure; 24 and 25 July) in which the Shakespearian hero is a woman. More Brazilian proposals? In the field of dance, Alice Ripoll takes advantage of her visit to the Mercat de les Flors (July 14, 15 and 16) to show a choreography aCORdo, and premiere another one, Zona Franca.

The new visit to the city of the always disruptive Marlene Monteiro Freitas (CCCB, from 4 to 6 July) will allow us to see her perform with another master of the movement arts, the also innovative Israel Galván, in the two-part RI-TE proposal.

Also in the field of dance, don’t miss among the festival’s programme the proposal of the London choreographer of Israeli origin Hofesh Shechter who, with the Hofesh Shechter Company-Shechter II, brings to the Mercat de les Flors (from 19 to 21 July) From England with Love. Finally, between 8 and 10 July, also at the Mercat de les Flors, don’t miss Friends of Forsythe, a complex choreography by William Forsythe, a master of dance, and Raul Rubberlegz Yasit.

If you don’t want to miss these and the rest of the international proposals of the Grec 2024 Festival de Barcelona, check out the full programme.