Arnau Sanromà and Enric Marzà premiere “Exercicis de cruelty for children”, a hypnotic work about ghosts inherited from childhood – Fundació Joan Brossa
The work can be seen from January 8 to 18 at the Center for Liberal Arts of the Joan Brossa Foundation.
A disturbing story about the loss of innocence through a polyphonic and rhythmic game.
The show is the first piece premiered jointly by Arnau Sanromà and Enric Marzà and took home all the awards at the S’Illo 2024 Festival.
Barcelona, January 7, 2025 – The Liberal Arts Center of the Joan Brossa Foundation opens tomorrow, Thursday, January 8, Cruelty exercises for children, a piece that explores the violence transmitted to children based on a disturbing story of two twin brothers. Created by Arnau Sanromà i Enric Marzà and interpreted by the same authors and Clara Mirthe work deploys gestural and vocal rhythmic work with hypnotic effects. Winner of all the awards at the S’Illo 2024 Festival, it can be seen until January 18 at the Free Arts Center.
doppelgänger, the ghostly double
In a chaotic and corrupt world, two twin brothers live hidden in a garden. Far from surrendering to the threat from the outside, the two children, alongside a girl who bursts into the garden, decide to practice a series of cruel exercises to harden themselves and prepare for the world that awaits them: “hunger, pain, cold and heat, everything that hurts”.
The authors start from the classic literary cliché of doppelgängera German term for a person’s ghostly or evil double, to work with the unfolding, repetition and violence surrounding the piece. A game of mirrors to tell a story that approaches dystopia and makes us reflect on the loss of innocence and the ghosts and violence we inherit in childhood.
A hypnotic gestural and vocal exploration
Based on a sober staging, the work unfolds a polyphonic and rhythmic game with vocal compositions and hypnotic body movements. A musical and plastic research of grotesque aesthetics with reminiscences of films like canine by Yorgos Lanthimos and novels like Claus and Lucas by Agota Kristoff and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in which the musicality of the word stands out from rhythm games and a cappella songs.
Prize-winning work
The piece, which comes from the final degree work of its authors at the Escola Superior d’Art Dramátic (ESAD), was the winner of all the awards at the S’Illo 2024 Festival in Santanyí, an unprecedented event at the competition. Enric Marzà won the prize for best dramaturgy, Arnau Sanromà and Enric Marzà the director and both, together with Clara Mir, won the prize for best interpretation.
ARNAU SANROMÀ AND ENRIC MARZÀ
Two young creators who make up a stage company with a clear desire for formal and poetic research, marked by a special attention to musicality and rhythm within the stage space. His practice is structured around the creation of scenic devices that eschew realistic textures, proposing imaginaries and their own worlds through a unique dramaturgy and a grotesque aesthetic. They have been residents in spaces such as Fabra i Coats, Sa Talaia and La Unió Santcugatenca, and their first piece, Cruelty exercises for childrenhas been presented in venues such as the Sala Planeta, Espai Inestable, Sala Clavé or the S’Illo Festival – where they won all the prizes of the competition: best direction, dramaturgy, interpretation and play.
THE PUBLIC SAID:
Splendid gestural and vocal theater exercise that deals with the violence that the adult world dispenses to children.
Oriol Osan, Cloud
The show is truly a marvel of textual theater in the vocal and body play of rhythms, character creation, story and staging, a true theater lesson for the audience who left amazed in all aspects of his body, voice and performance.
Jeroni Obrador, director of the S’Illo Festival
USEFUL INFORMATION
From January 8 to 18
From Wednesday to Saturday, at 7:30 p.m
Sunday at 12 p.m
Format: text
Duration: 55 minutes
Language: Catalan
Age: from 12 years
ART FILE
Address: Arnau Sanromà and Enric Marzà
Authorship: Arnau Sanromà and Enric Marzà
Dramaturgy: Enric Marzà
Performers: Arnau Sanromà, Enric Marzà and Clara Mir
Sound and lighting design: Jordy Mero
Movement and external gaze: Marina Fueyo
Construction tadpoles: Lulu Sauch and Arnau Sanromà
Carpet design: Helena Mateos, Arnau Sanromà i Enric Marzà
