The mechanisms that lead the director to choose the script are ambiguous. Some works written a hundred years ago still challenge us, others have not aged well and have to go through the parlor. Sometimes the change is so drastic that you wonder why the director didn’t write another straight play. with Criminals, Jordi Prat i Coll’s new proposal based on Ferdinand Bruckner’s text, does little of the latter. It is undeniable that justice remains a very current issue, and that some of Bruckner’s ideas about criminality still ring true. However, it seems that the director does not completely trust the script, as he adds a prologue, an epilogue, and all kinds of textual fillers.
Jordi Prat e Cole is not afraid of Sala Gran del TNC, as he has shown in productions such as the hilarious film Canbrosa pink toys of Rusiñol or better Rambla de les Florestes From Sagara On this occasion, the results focus particularly on staging. Laura Close created three spaces that function aesthetically and dramatically: the first act building, pure 13 Del Persepe Street; The second court (sober simplicity in black) and the third cabaret. Danny Espasa signs the soundtrack and Jordi Cornudella (piano and clarinet), Jordi Santanach (clarinet and sax) and Dick Thieme (double bass) lead, with melodies in dialogue with 1920s jazz and Kurt Weill (a wonderful moment where echoes of Lily Marlene with Maki razor). Montse Colomé moves and makes the performers dance with his usual elegance and grace, and the company devotes itself to the game with gusto. It is the dramaturgy, adapted from Prat i Coll, that doesn’t quite work, that does Criminals It is a strange sight, and it is not clear in which direction to advance.
Moving on to the interpretation section, it can be seen that Joan Carreras is having great fun as the charming life seeker, with a final denouement reuniting Chaplin with Liza Minnelli and… The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Cristina (Eyelashes) Plaza particularly shines in the second act, where she enthusiastically surrenders herself to the game the director proposes: Berlin Expressionism and the homage to Carles Santos, anti-naturalism and anti-modernism. They chant. María Rodríguez Soto is the initially slightly hurried Ernestina, who finds her poise in the second and third acts. The young part of the cast is the weakest, with the exception of some solvent Marc Tarida Arribao, Eric Balbas or Carme Milan. We can’t wait for Kathy C and Carles Roig to have more cloth to cut in this choral drama.
The film is also depicted well nightclub (Bob Fosse, 1971), The happiness and sexual freedom of the Weimar Republic would be cut short when the Nazis came to power. In the third act, the neighbors’ building has become a slum, where anti-Semitism and mistrust among equals are already evident. We have to be vigilant: fascism is always lurking, waiting patiently on the other side of the door. However, the final image of the show is so hideous that it demolishes everything that had been built up to that point. The audience applauds in surprise. We will remember this ending for a long time.
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