The exorcisms in which Jacint Verdaguer used to take part are the starting point for an installation that reflects on the concept of possession. The staging, which has a limited number of visitors, has been filmed and made available online.
The Covid-19 health crisis has made it necessary to put in place protection measures limiting the number of people who could attend some of the events of the Barcelona Grec Festival. However, there is no excuse for missing proposals as interesting as cabosanroque’s: the joining of the talents of Laia Torrents Carulla and Roger Aixut Sampietro. This is an expanded play; in other words, the adaptation goes beyond the conventional boundaries and space of a stage production. The installation depicts a flat in La Ribera district where, in the late 19th century, Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer used to attend the exorcism sessions that were held there. Notes by Verdaguer himself, reviewed and with comments by the poet Enric Casasses, as well as recorded speeches by the flamenco singer Niño de Elche and the flamenco dancer and choreographer Rocío Molina, are all part of the proposal, which reflects on the phenomenon of possession and its social, aesthetic, biological and, finally, theatrical implications.
A Grec 2020 Festival de Barcelona, cabosanroque, La Filature - Scène nationale de Mulhouse, Temporada Alta and Lluís Coromina Foundation co-production.
Supported by the Verdaguer Foundation, the MUHBA (Museu d’Història de Barcelona) and the Catalan government's Ministry of Culture.
Concept, creation, adaptation, directing, sound design, composition and stage design: cabosanroque (Laia Torrents Carulla and Roger Aixut Sampietro) Text: Jacint Verdaguer and Maya Deren Translation of Maya Deren’s text by: Martí Sales Original music: cabosanroque (versions of Raban Maur's Veni creator and Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question) Lighting design: Cube.bz, cabosanroque Video and recording production: Frau - Recerques Visuals, cabosanroque Stage construction: Kike Blanco and cabosanroque Executive producer and distributor: Helena Febrés Fraylich Recorded participation: Niño de Elche (flamenco singer), Rocío Molina (flamenco dancer), Enric Casasses (poet), Manuel Delgado (anthropologist), Gerard Horta (anthropologist), Ricard Torrents (Verdaguer specialist ), Carme Torrents (museologist), Lourdes Porquet (virologist), Xavier Rebodosa (virologists), Pau Rodríguez (psychologist), Laia Torrents and Roger Aixut (cabosanroque) Recitation of Jacint Verdaguer's verses by: Núria Martínez Vernis (poet), Jordina Boix (director of the Verdaguer Foundation) Performance of Padre A. F. (exorcist): Joan Solana Acknowledgements: Casa Museu Verdaguer, University of Barcelona Department of Social Anthropology, CCCB (Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture) and Enric Casasses, without whose Dimonis (Verdaguer Edicions, 2014) our own would never have existed. Photography: José Hevia
