Although 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.

Even today, the festival that remembers Alexandre Ballester in sa Pobla, of which the sixth edition has just taken place, is called Albopàs, the name of the town backwards: a term he coined, as a kind of magical recreaction of sa Pobla, and a country where he set many of his works. We remember this stage creator precisely when the Principal Theatre of Palma is about to premiere a new version of Un baül groc per a Nofre Taylor, one of his most outstanding works.

It was formerly called the House of Comedies, and the current building was constructed in the 19th century. But Palma's Principal Theatre stands on the same site where performances were already taking place in the 17th century. For 359 years, comedies have been staged in the same location, next to the former stream that gives its name to the street where it is located. As we approach World Theatre Day, as we do every March 27th, we explore the history of this stage.

Animula, vagula, blandula/ Hospes comesque corporeal/ Quae nunc abibis in loca/ Pallid, rigid, nudula, Neco, ut solas, dabis yocos… Thus begins the funeral poem written by the Emperor Hadrian, which inspired Marguerite Yourcenar for her Memoirs, as a hypothetical farewell letter he writes to his young successor, Marc Aureli. A piece that was, at the time, essential and delightful reading. Years later, none other than Maurizio Scaparro brought them to the stage in an adaptation by Jean Launay, starring Giorgio Albertazzi, which we saw at Madrid's Teatro Albéniz. The director himself revived it in Spanish, starring José Sancho, with whom he toured much of the Iberian Peninsula.