Trace, grace and insight

PalmaAlthough it has been fifteen years since Alexandre Ballester passed away, he will always be present in the memory of those of us who enjoyed his talent, grace, and insight. That the Teatre Principal Palma decides to make him accessible to all those who did not have our good fortune is, without a doubt, not only a success but also a well-deserved tribute. The production, on the other hand, is a top-tier one, with a grandiose set design, with the drawback of mobility so it can go to other stages on the island, and a stellar cast, led by Miquel Àngel Torrens, along with Luca Bonadei, Mariona Hauf, Sofía Muñiz, Maria Rosselló Josep Orfila, and Patxi Arostegui. The play, Un baül groc per a Nofre Taylor, which Joan Lluís Bozzo once put on the Catalan alternative stages, a little before the creation of Dagoll Dagom, had been left at the bottom of the trunk of forgotten plays. Marga López has been in charge of this rescue, of this hyperrealistic portrait of the human condition, because that is what Ballester's play is, and nothing else. All the traits of the rich and powerful have not changed a bit, because they were already like that since time immemorial. This would be a careful, but simple, reading, because the subjects of the emperors/businessmen also play the same role as always, that of submission. Even more so, we could give all and each of the characters who appear the first and last names of someone known, so well-known that perhaps they are our own. Ballester's brush never left any corner unpainted.

Only these attributes and particularities make Un baül groc per a Nofre Taylor essential, for the simple reason that in a hundred years it will surely have identical relevance. On the other hand, Ballester's theatre has a characteristic that unites his curriculum: the combination of humor, mockery, and even scorn with discourse and transcendence. All within a multicolored wrapping, with a patina of absurd extravagance. Putting it all together carries many risks. Moving from pantomime to melodrama, with tragedy included, requires great subtlety so that the true reason for it all does not lose its balance. Perhaps this is where the staging needs polishing, so that the change of register is not so jarring, in order to give coherence to the ending, so that the essential metamorphosis has the necessary fluidity and does not lose effectiveness along the way.