Per sobre de totes les coses. Bare in Concert, Teatre Condal Barcelona
Written by Laura for Theatre and Tonic.
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review. All opinions are our own.
Ten years ago, the Catalan adaptation of Bare: A pop opera premiered in Barcelona. Yesterday, most of its original cast, creative team and musicians got together to celebrate this milestone with a charity concert.
In a Catholic boarding school, Peter and Jason are roommates, but also secretly lovers. Peter wants to make their relationship public, but Jason, the popular guy at school, is reluctant to do so. The musical deals with themes of religious guilt and homophobia, as well as the importance of having a support system when you’re going through hard times, and what may happen if your closest circle withdraws that support.
This concert offered some of the musical’s best-known songs in an abridged version of the musical. From time to time, Daniel Anglès, Teatre Condal’s director and part of the original company that produced Per sobre de totes les coses, MADAM Teatre, filled us in on any plot aspects we may have missed, and talked about how this musical and this company came to be. Something that Anglès said really stuck with me; it was along the lines of “we repeat this story so stories like this don’t repeat themselves”.
I wager most of the public had already seen this first version of the musical that premiered ten years ago. Others, like me, were seeing it for the first time. Either way, everyone was entranced, respectful but enthusiastic, which made for a beautiful experience in the stalls as well. I could hear someone quietly crying behind me throughout the whole show!
Of course, the artists were wonderful. I could tell they were thrilled to be back and that it was quite an emotional moment for them. Our two protagonists were actually played by three people; Marc Flynn was Peter, and Jan Forrellat shared the role of Jason with Víctor Arbelo as they had both played him in the past. All three of them were absolutely wonderful, both in singing as in conveying their emotions in such a (pardon my pun) bare setting as a concert staging.
The profits of this concert went to Ahora Dónde, an association that offers help to young LGBTQIA+ people who suffer from rejection in their homes.
I would love for a fully staged production of Per sobre de totes les coses. Bare, el Musical to be back in Catalan theatres very soon, and I’m sure international fans of the show would also really enjoy it.
★★★★
