- On the two weekends from 6 to 15 March, the Gorbeia-Zaldiaran market of Vitoria-Gasteiz will become a stage space thanks to the initiative of the theatre groups Pez Limbo and the factory of Fuegos. This year is the second edition of the Durango Fair, which will bring together 17 companies that will offer theatre, dance, puppets, performance and clown. Four unusual scenarios for six days for day-to-day and culture to merge.
“The lights don’t shine, the smell of fish is obvious, you have to wait for the turn…”, says Edu Hernando, a member of the theater company Pez Limbo. It is, therefore, a gloomy place, but close, linked to daily life.
150 gr. manufactured in 2011. First edition of the initiative, supported by the Factories of Creation program of the Basque Government. On that occasion, four scenarios were installed in the central market and ten companies participated for about 800 attendees. “In that edition we published plays that otherwise would never see the light, and that have later known several squares and have been awarded,” continued Hernando. This year the offer has almost doubled, as the number of theatre enthusiasts in Vitoria-Gasteiz has increased.
The second group behind this initiative, Factoria de Fuegos, after acting abroad, returned to Álava in 2009. It is currently a platform for the creation and dissemination of new actors. On the other hand, Pez Limbo seeks unusual spaces for the representation of the theater. So far they have taken as a setting curious places: jails, butchers, schools, museums...
Empty theatres, filled streets
The theater can be the right place for the theater, but going there is not always easy. “It is an attitude of elistism, but far removed from the nature of the theatre. For example, the young audience is totally rejected,” says Hernando, “our proposal is that the theater be capable of any space.”
150 gr. this year. The plays participating in the festival are also short, with a maximum duration of half an hour. In the last edition it was concluded that people like short works, but also this space. “On the other hand, the works are decorative and without artifacts, naked and naked representations, since being the spectator two meters away, it is difficult to hide anything,” explains Hernando. Eight works will be offered entirely in Euskera, “although we know that this amount is far from adequate”. In the future, the figure is expected to improve.
The member of Pez Limbo believes something is happening in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the performing arts: “We have an interesting picture. Those of Sleepwalk Collective, Kolektiboa Monstrenko, Baratza aretoa or ourselves, Pez Limbo, have been working hard for years to ensure that there is a broad and diverse audience, and the result is clear.”