Terra baixa

Terra baixa is a fascinating text that, despite being a story from 125 years ago, evolves in line with a society that is also changing. The melodramatic tones have long since been abandoned in this poetic drama, which now challenges us with all its rawness. Casal de Vilafranca’s adaptation scrupulously respects Guimerà’s tormented voice but with a contemporary perspective. In order to explain Terra baixa, the play has been reduced to six characters and the plot has been reorganised to enhance the essential dramatic ideas and events that reflect the spirit of the play: power, abuse, desire, good and evil, and violence. In this contemporary and choral proposal, the group has sought the perspective of Marta, the protagonist, who shocks us with words that are very vivid today when she says “Lies!…. Well, you will listen to me and believe me; it won’t be a lie!”, and the complicity of Nuri. The group has worked hard on every word so that the text, far from being confined to the stage, explodes over the audience.

The Terra baixa project was born from the impulse of an Athenaeum of the Network of Athenaeum Theatres of Catalonia: the Casal de Vilafranca. Its umbrella was the group Taller d’Assaig Teatre (TAT), whose director is Valeri Laguna, but the company created for this production is made up of actors and actresses from different groups (the basis comes from the TAT, but the casting has been more specific and selective).