To Be or Not to Be by La Fura dels Baus in Málaga

Attending a La Fura show is just that. A spectacle. After decades of groundbreaking and extreme theatrical performances, the style of ... the house leaves its mark, although we knew little else about their new show, 'Sons: to be or not to be,' as it was a European premiere. Well, the title also told us that we were going to see a 'Shakespeare,' albeit in a furera version. And in that, the new staging by the Catalan company did not disappoint. In co-production with Teatro Cervantes, they premiered this immersive piece in Malaga on Wednesday, sponsored by Carlus Padrissa, one of the founders of this theatrical project with more than four decades of history, who you find among the audience during the performance. He was very attentive to everything happening on stage, which extended from the boards to the entrance of the venue, even participating in the show and laughing with his actors in the comic scenes. No, this play deviates from the script, from the libretto, to be (or not to be) a full-fledged spectacle.

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European Premiere

• Title: 'Sons: to be or not to be'

• Artistic Director: Carlus Padrissa (La Fura dels Baus)

• Cast: Quico Torrent, Tamara Ndong, Guillermina Brandauer, and Ferran Plana along with performers from ESAD of Malaga Pablo Leyva, Alba Maro, Belén Hernández, and Teresa Escobar

• Location and date: Sala Bodegueros 38, until Sunday, June 1, 2025

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We can analyze the 'Shakespearian' plot as much as we want, but that was not the highlight of this 'Hamlet' and its revenge. Its tragedy was rather an excuse for a theatrical exercise, acrobatic dance, and even circus that breaks aesthetic conventions to engage the audience and make them part of the scenery, with actors surrounding you, looking you in the eyes, and even touching you. With dead characters emerging from coffins, battles with plastic barrels among the spectators, a ghostly Ophelia flying over our heads, or that 'to be or not to be' of the protagonist performed oppressively from inside a giant plastic bag, like those used to store winter clothes and vacuum-sealed, as a kind of womb.

A revisited classic that speaks to us about consumption, the hyperconnectivity that disconnects us, the environment, lies, cowardice, and the foolishness of digital times. "The daily homicide," as the text ends with Calderón de la Barca, rhyming to be or not to be with dreams are but dreams. But all this is just the substrate of that 360 and provocative theater that Carlus Padrissa and his team perpetrate, exploring the limits of the scenic, but also of reality and fiction in the work itself, with the support of technology: surround sound, video, and projections - although some images failed at the last minute. Not to mention the elements that the audience also feels, like the water that falls or the mud in which the protagonists wallow and splash.

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In this powerful visual and direct proposal lies the strength of this 'To be or not to be' with actors everywhere and different interpretive focuses at the same time. Thus, the rehearsal room of Teatro Cervantes on Bodegueros street, turned for the first time into an auditorium with an audience, worked for this 'Sons' show that precisely needs large open spaces to attack the spectator from all sides. Perhaps, an even larger venue would have given even more possibilities to this expansive show, whose actors you feel so close that you participate in their physical and interpretive outpouring. And they make you feel their anguish and that of these times with a proposal as radical as it is furera.

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