Maybe you have a neighbour who is like the star of this fictional story. He is a tailor and he shares his flat, workshop and life with his authoritarian brother, who is also a tailor and sets limits and watches him, making him tow the line and only exercise his preferred activity, dressing up as a woman, now known as cross-dressing, when no one can see. Cross-dressing involves dressing and behaving like someone of the opposite sex, without this having a direct relation to the sexual preferences of those who practice it. The tailor who stars in this story, selected via the campaign Where the theatre beats, launched by the city's local theatres, the pandemic and the lockdown caused by Covid-19, has opened a doorway to a freedom that he never imagined. And through that doorway has entered the woman he most admires and had always wanted to be; the great dancer Isadora Duncan. Considered to be the creator of modern dance, the artist initially sympathised with the Russian Revolution. She lived in Moscow for several years and was married to the poet Sergei Yesenin, a charismatic character who eventually committed suicide.
It's true that Isadora Duncan died in 1927. But now she has come back to life and dances, up and down the tailor's flat, as Covid-19 has taken his brother to hospital and he is alone, locked down and locked in with his fantasies and a pile of dresses. His only contact is with a neighbour who lives in Flat 3 on the first floor, an out-of-work actor who bought the flat and survives as best he can as a tourist guide. The actor is openly homosexual and has just broken up with his partner, while due to the lockdown, he has been left with no source of income. So he is particularly interested in the proposal made by his extravagant neighbour, who he found dressed as Isadora: to occasionally play the part of her great love, Sergei Yesenin. Whether it is a job or a game, an intense and profoundly human relationship is established between the two characters, which will make you laugh, although it ends in tragedy.
Two actors, for whom the text was written, perform a play that evokes the convoluted, affected language of Tennessee Williams or Rainer M. Fassbinder, although the transvestite scenes and the identity-exchange games also recall the works of Joe Orton.
The production's playwright and director, Marc Rosich has been inspired by all of these sources. He has a degree in Journalism and in Translation and Interpreting, but he also trained in dramatic writing at the Obrador, which is part of the Sala Beckett. He has dramatised novels such as Mequinensa, by Jesús Moncada, Pedra de tartera, by Maria Barbal and, together with Rafel Duran, Mort de dama, by Llorenç Villalonga 2010 Escènica Award for Best Adaptation), and also collaborated as a playwright with directors such as Calixto Bieito, David Selvas and Andrés Lima. In addition, he has created a number of his own texts, including Rive Gauche, La dona vinguda del futur, Car Wash, N&N, núria i nacho, De Manolo a Escobar; Surabaya (shortlisted for the 2004 Romea Foundation Award) and Copi i Ocaña, al purgatori. He is the author of the opera libretto Diàlegs de Tirant e Carmesina, with music by Joan Magrané, the cantata Rambla Llibertat and the operas Java Suite, Lord Byron and La Cuzzoni, all with music by Agustí Charles. He created the dramaturgy for Fuegos, a production based on the texts of Marguerite Yourcenar, which was directed by Josep Maria Pou and was staged during the 2013 Barcelona Grec Festival.
A Grec 2022 Festival de Barcelona and La incògnita company production.
In collaboration with Atrium and Teatre Akadèmia.
Playwright and director: Marc Rosich, Assistant director: Victòria Pagès, Performed by: Oriol Guinart, Jordi Llordella, Stage design and costumes: Joana Martí, Lighting: Mattia Russo, Sound space: Ramon Creus Guiu (Milu), Movement: Montse Colomé, Rusian language advisor: Paula Blanco, Production: Judit Ferrer (Atrium produccions), Assistant productor: Jordi Llordella, Photography: Manel Marqués