Jordi Bosch: "The centuries pass and Shakespeare continues to touch people's souls"

PalmaVenus and Adonis arrives for the first time in Mallorca, on August 13 and 14, eleven years after its premiere, with Jordi Bosch, Emma Vilarasau and the cellist Lluís Claret, hand in hand with the Fundació Mallorca Literària

“Shakespeare's greatness lies in the fact that it does not depend on fashion or trends. It connects so profoundly with the essence of the human being that it transcends time. His works and poems endure because they are timeless. It's as if he put a small magnifying glass on the human soul, and that's the most beautiful thing about listening to him.” Actor Jordi Bosch speaks like this about the great English author, author of Venus and Adonis, the poem he performs alongside Emma Vilarasau, with the accompaniment of the “exquisite and extraordinary” music of the cellist Lluís Claret, who will perform fragments by Johann Sebastian Bach, François Couperin and Jean-Baptiste Barrière.

The show, which Bosch defines as a "very simple dramatized reading", arrives in Mallorca for the first time, although it premiered at the Sant Cugat Poetry Festival in 2015. It can be seen on August 13th at the amphitheater of the Jardins de Na Batlessa, in Artà, and on August 14th in the garden of Casa Llorenç Villalonga, in Binissalem. The title is part of the programming of the festival La Lluna en Vers, by the Fundació Mallorca Literària.

Although it premiered eleven years ago, Bosch explains that they are reviving the piece "when their schedules coincide": "It is material that remains dormant and that we recover when we feel like it and our schedules allow it. Lluís spends half a year between Boston and Tokyo. When our calendars coincide, we take the opportunity to do it again because it is a piece that we like, that moves us, and that also moves the audience".

The story

Venus and Adonis was Shakespeare's most successful work during his lifetime. Written at a time when London theatres were closed due to plague epidemics, it was first published in 1593, when Shakespeare was 29 years old, and introduced the playwright as a poet. The plot is inspired by several passages from the Metamorphosis of Ovid. It tells the story of Venus, goddess of love, who falls in love with the very handsome Adonis. He, however, rejects her, shows little interest in Venus's advances, who pursues him with the intention of convincing him, but there is no way to achieve it. Adonis is only interested in hunting. “And then the story ends as it ends, but I don't want to give spoilers. The most beautiful thing is the whole journey the characters take,” points out the actor.

For Bosch, the most beautiful thing about representing this poem is, quite simply, being able to speak it. “It’s always a pleasure to be at the service of the great Shakespeare. The audience listens to a beautiful story that takes you to very different places. Shakespeare goes far beyond the specific narrative, because he speaks of universal things. The poem was a real best-seller in its time and today it continues to thrill people because it deals with the human essence, something that survives any fashion and any era. Centuries pass and it continues to touch people's souls”.

To direct poetry, explains Bosch, “it has its own rules, its code and its way of doing things”. Facing different materials “has its difficulty and demands a different way of working”. And high poetry, like Shakespeare's, is “demanding”, but at the same time very rewarding: “Poetry has a very special strength because it takes us out of everyday language. It is not a matter of elevating oneself or being intellectual; it simply speaks in a different way. It uses images that we do not use in daily conversation and, precisely because of this, it reaches the soul very directly. It touches an inner door that makes you think: “I have already felt or thought this, but I didn't know how to express it like this”.

This function is also special because, after performing it for more than a decade, the performers have made the text very much their own. “As you say the words, they end up becoming part of you. This helps you as a performer and makes what reaches the listener’s ear much more alive and close.” In addition, there is the trust, complicity, and affection that exists between Bosch, Vilarasau, and Claret. “This is very noticeable to the spectator. When there is this complicity, all doors open. The atmosphere grows, the three of us add up, and the audience receives very beautiful material,” reflects Bosch.

According to the actor, this show “will last for many more years” because “it doesn’t expire” and because it is a “very simple” proposal: “the word is always in the foreground.” And also because doing Shakespeare always leaves you “wanting more.” “It happens with very few authors that, after working with them, what you feel like doing is returning to them again and again.”