Sardana Superstar at Teatre Condal Review
Written by Laura for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Sardana Superstar places us in a dystopian future in which a meteor is about to crash into Earth and extinguish all life. Humanity is forced to turn to Sardana, Catalonia’s almost-extinct traditional dance, as its only hope. Sardana, a group dance where people join hands in a circle and coordinate their steps, is somehow the only choreography powerful enough to shift the Earth off its axis and save it from destruction.
Written and directed by Arnau Tordera, the show is every bit as wild as this premise suggests. The sets were minimal, and even the wigs looked extremely fake, which I can only assume was a conscious, campy choice that I’m not sure I enjoyed.
A cast of four people (Pol Blancafort, Maria Cirici, Mireia Lorente-Picó, and Miquel Malirach) play all the characters in the show. The text cleverly moves around this limitation, and the scenes hold up even when multiple characters are never onstage at once. All four actors gave solid performances and adapted well to all their multiple roles. Unfortunately, they all struggled a bit more when performing the musical numbers.
Sardana Superstar is a humorous piece. Some of the jokes landed very well, especially those poking fun at how forgotten the dance is; the audience gave genuine laughs and chuckles. However, other jokes were a complete miss, and the audience seemed unsure how to react at times.
One element I enjoyed was the presence of musicians from Cobla Cani-Gó!, performing onstage in orange astronaut suits. The visual was fun and memorable, even if it didn’t make much narrative sense. I do wish we’d had a fuller ensemble of players, as the sound felt a little thin at times.
I must praise the show for working with and highlighting a nearly forgotten aspect of Catalan culture. It is obvious that the author deeply cares for it, and so did the people who went to see the show, so perhaps it is a bit less forgotten than everyone initially thinks! At one point in the show, people were encouraged to get up and dance a Sardana, which was the highlight of the night for many.
Sardana Superstar was most certainly a bizarre experience, made with a really lovely intention. With a few tweaks, I believe it could be much improved for its possible future performances.
★★
