In a city where theater coexists with the street, music, and memory, there are companies that not only create shows in ThereThey create experiences. Anonymous Productions @anonimsproduccions www.anonimsproduccions.com, based in Sant Boi de Llobregat in the province of Barcelona, is one of them. Its stage offering moves away from conventional theater and immerses itself in its own creation, where music doesn't accompany it: it takes center stage. Works such as "Veganos, el musical," "Balada per un hom mort," and "Pols a la memòria" are proof that art can be irreverent, poetic, and deeply political without losing its humor or emotion.
From her new stage as heir of Pupipia Productions, Anonymous He has established himself as a unique voice on the Catalan scene, focusing on shows that challenge the audience from both the intimate and the collective.
In this interview, we delve into his creative process, his understanding of theater as a tool for transformation, and the challenges of making independent art in times of algorithms and urgency. Today we speak with Anonymous Productions: contemporary theatre from Sant Boi with its own stamp.
How would you define the artistic identity of Anònims Produccions? I think it's very difficult to define anyone's artistic identity, much less our own. Our goal as a company and as creators is always to be honest with ourselves.
Our creative curiosity, which focuses on theater and musicals, leads us to tell stories that hold special significance for us. We've spent a lifetime making theater and telling stories that others have written, and we believe it's time to write and tell our own stories in our own way.
What led you to opt for your own creative shows with music as the focus? We've always been big fans of musicals. In our case, we always work together: Jesús Horcajo, as a musician, and Estanis Aboal, as a playwright, creating shows where music has a special focus. Music allows the story to be told in a much more nuanced way, emphasizing the characters' background and emotions.
We also believe that musical theater is often trivialized and considered a glitter-and-sequin format…as advocates of musicals, we believe great stories can be told through the musical theater format, both comedic and dramatic.
How has the transition been from Pupipia Produccions to this new stage? Pupipia is the first name we adopted as a professional theater company, although we'd been working together since 1997. We evolved into Anónims Produccions because it was a much more mature name that represented us as an entity. The name Anónims was born from various conversations with several programmers and distributors, who insisted that it would be much easier to sell our shows if we had well-known people on our cast.
How do you choose the topics you want to address in each show? Each theme emerges on its own, whether through conversation or even travel. Barbablava was born while traveling through France. There, we rediscovered Perrault's tale, and we thought it would be interesting to talk about the dark side of tales and explore the sinister character of the man who inspired it, Gilles de Rais. "Ballad for a Dead Man" arose from reading Oscar Wilde's short poem, and we dreamed up the love story that poem might have inspired.
Pols en la memòria was born from personal experiences, thinking about what the inner world of an Alzheimer's patient would be like, from within their subconscious.
Veganos was created under the guise of simulating an impossible love between a vegan girl and a carnivorous boy who hides the truth from her in order to win her over. We always establish a hypothesis and develop it through collaborative dialogue.
What challenges do you face as an independent company in Barcelona? Our headquarters are actually in Sant Boi de Llobregat, very close to Barcelona. We believe that the main challenge for any company wanting to enter the jungle of Barcelona theater is visibility, funding, and connections.
In our case, each new show has forced us to market ourselves from the ground up, as programmers don't make it easy for new companies or unknown shows to enter. They don't want to take risks; they look for easy programming, ones that fill the house with almost no advertising and with very poor infrastructure, where priority is given to setting up and tearing down quickly, attracting an audience, and accepting almost anything to be programmed.
We have been lucky enough to be able to enter theaters like the Gaudi Theater, the Eixample Theatre Ars Teatre, Almeria (at present golems) or the Raval, but it's very difficult to be heard or even get your emails answered. Many theaters only program companies they know and don't even give new artists a chance.
On the other hand, the cultural departments of institutions and city councils generally don't show much interest in helping. Few have reached out to us throughout this process, and you really consider quitting on multiple occasions. Being an independent theater company is an act of love for theater and masochism, although we're happy to keep trying project after project. For now, we've managed to have a season with all the shows we've created; we hope this trend continues.
What is the collective creation process within the team? We don't work from a collective creation perspective, but we do merge with and feed off the work process. We usually create a fully finalized first script, and from there the music emerges. The lyrics are adapted to the music, and then rehearsed.
In the rehearsal room, script variations often emerge, lyrics are modified, and everything is put together to give the show a specific rhythm. Everything becomes a seamless process, but the pieces can be modified if necessary. The rehearsal process is the most lively part and is where the show truly emerges, although there's a lot of work done beforehand.
How important is the connection with the audience in your productions? As Peter Brook said, there is no theater without an audience. Ultimately, the audience is just another element. We often incorporate the audience into the rehearsal process, as it's very important to see how the text and music connect with the audience's reaction. We don't usually put on shows in which the audience actively participates, but we always break the so-called "fourth wall" in one way or another so that the audience feels an integral part of what they're seeing and truly experiences it.
What projects do you currently have in progress? Since finishing our season with "Ballad for a Dead Man" at the Teatre del Raval, we've embarked on a long creative process that has involved a variety of projects. During this time, we created Titus Andronicus, the musical, based on Shakespeare's text, but after beginning the rehearsal process, we decided to put it on hold until we found the right time to premiere it.
We encountered difficulties in properly premiering it, and decided to opt for smaller formats. We're currently rehearsing a new text-based drama project called "La fase àuria." Although it will feature its own original soundtrack, it won't be a musical. At the same time, we're creating another small-format musical called "Desconeguts" for three performers, which will be released very soon.
What do you dream for the future of Anònims Produccions? What drives us is creating shows and seeing them on stage. We'd love a utopia where we could create without having to worry about the production costs ourselves, have a proper rehearsal space, and have the stability that comes with having a theater to run a season before opening.
We find this very difficult to achieve, so we will continue producing our shows and looking for ways to get them to theaters as soon as possible.
