Gentry

Mos Maiorum Collective

Since it was first coined by the British sociologist Ruth Glass in 1964, the term “gentrification” has strongly spread from the academia to social movements, politics and the media. What used to design the urban phenomenon of the replacement of the population of an area by a new population with a higher purchasing power is turning into a concept that can actually describe a large number of neoliberal practices that are hijacking and challenging the contemporary cities, all over the world: from the uncontrolled speculation on the urban soil and the rent prices to the extractive industry of tourism, which go together with laws that either tolerate or directly promote the capitalist exploitation of the city by investment groups, real estate companies and hotel businesses, and which at the same time weaken tenant rights and ease eviction processes. The impact of these practices is however producing a flip side, as many forms of social resistance are emerging to fight for the right to the city.

Gentry is a documentary theatre project that tackles the ongoing gentrification processes in Barcelona and the political and social movements that are struggling to stop them. Gentry is the result of a long research project, carried out in Barcelona, Berlin and Venice, that involved more than 50 interviews with town planners, architects, activists, journalists, politicians, lawyers and affected neighbours. These interviews are edited and partially reproduced and interwoven by the performers by using the technique of Verbatim theatre. Theoretical and historical approaches to gentrification merge with the testimony of evicted and displaced neighbours, in a space configuration that places the audience on stage and forces it to move, while four screens produce an immersive space that shifts between the reality of space as a place for cohabitation and the virtuality of the city regarded as an investment product.

"We can’t expect to keep our seat by the end of the performance, as we can’t expect our rented flat not to become the property of an international investment fund. Gentry is descriptive and unpleasant because it doesn’t ellude the key question: what is our responsibility in this global process? The discourse of Gentry is neither the most popular nor the most broadcasted by the media, and that’s why it is so necessary.”
Gemma Moraleda, “Gentry”, Somnis de teatre

By and with Mariona Naudin, Ireneu Tranis, Alba Valldaura
Dramaturgy Marc Villanueva Mir
Assistant director Mònica Almirall
Set design Clàudia Vilà
Costumes Adriana Parra
Video Ventura López Kalász
Sound design Guillem Llotje
Light design Pol Queralt
Executive producer Anna Bohigas
Communication COSMICA (Anna Aurich, Sònia González)
Photography Roger Rossell

Interviewees Àlex Aguilar, Carol Álvarez, Anna Bernard, David Bravo, Joan Gabriel Cervera, Martí Cusó, Carles Fernández, Pablo Feu, Ondina Gallifa, Gemma Garcia, Cristiano Gasparetto, Gerard Horta, Esther López, Iolanda Nievas, Meritxell Pérez, Gala Pin, Angello Ponziano, Mariona Roca, Lucas Rubio Albizu, Irene Sabaté, Olga Sánchez, Alessandro Scarnato, Berty Tovías, Alessandro Zorzetto
Research interviewees Ferran Aguiló, Mikel Aramburu, Marco Baravalle, Chiara Buratti, Beatriz Riera, Francesca Belia, Juan Cardona, Gerko Egert, Maria Fiano, Andrej Holm, Toni López, Natalia Menen, Àlex Molina, Eduard Mont de Palol, Peter, Jesús Roco, Aurora Rodríguez, Marina Rodríguez, Maria Sales, Frank Schaberg, Jaume Valldaura  
With the complicity of Assemblea Sociale per la Casa (Venice), Cooperativa d’habitatge La Borda (Barcelona), La Directa (Barcelona), Laboratorio Occupato Morion (Venice), No Grandi Navi (Venice), Resistim al Gòtic (Barcelona), S.a.L.E. Docks (Venice), Salvem les Drassanes (Barcelona), Sindicat de Llogaters (Barcelona), Venice on board (Venice), Zwangsräumungen verhindern (Berlin)

Coproduction of Festival Grec with the support of Institut del Teatre de la Diputació de Barcelona, La Poderosa, Fabra i Coats and L’Estruch-Ajuntament de Sabadell

This project won the Adrià Gual Award 2017

CAT/ EN/ ES




With
Mos Maiorum Collective

Previous dates

Barcelona | Antic Teatre
23.11.21. 20h

Barcelona | Antic Teatre
17.01.20. 20h
18.01.20. 20h
19.01.20. 20h
20.01.20. 20h
23.01.20. 20h
24.01.20. 20h
25.01.20. 20h
26.01.20. 20h

Bordeaux | FAB
17.10.19. 20h
18.10.19. 21h
19.10.19. 20h

Madrid | Conde Duque
3.10.19. 20h
4.10.19. 20h
5.10.19. 20h

Terrassa | Festival TNT
28.9.19 20:15h

El Prat de Llobregat | Teatre Modern
21.2.19. 20h

Barcelona | Festival Grec
7.7.18. 21h
8.7.18. 21h
9.7.18. 21h