ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN a coproduction of GREC 2016 BARCELONA FESTIVAL and Cia. Mar Gómez CIA. MAR GÓMEZ
SYNOPSIS After death four characters find themselves in an eternity that looks like and amplified copy of life. What if this never ends? What if we discover that after death we have to keep on living just as usual, asking ourselves the same questions and bearing the same problems, in an endless way? This is what the four characters find out in this narrative, surrealist, ironic and unpredictable dance theatre show. In an infinite and enveloping heaven, our main characters will have to restart their personal stories being as imperfect as they have been in their lifetime and knowing as little as they did when they were alive. Why is it only the four of them up there? Why is there a slot-machine? Why does their gender seem to be something quite unstable? These characters will take us to discover the rules of this afterlife, in this journey we ll have a laugh at human condition while rediscovering it through their eyes. Starting from this peculiar supernatural situation, we ll board on a quite crazy, trascendant and mundane story, in which death will be the perfect excuse to enter the contradictory story of life. It s not hard to imagine an Allmighty God that, as the audience, has a good laugh with the main characters of the show. A coproduction of Grec 2016 Barcelona Festival and Cia. Mar Gómez. Cia. Mar Gómez receives the support of Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escènicas y la Música (National Institute of Music and Performing Arts), Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Culture Department of Catalonia s Government), Barcelona s City Council and Ramon Llull Insitute.
A COMICAL DEATH FATE There are few things that are potentially as humoristic as other people s misfortunes. Following this premise, Cia. Mar Gomez s show places its characters in the most tragic situation of all: death. On earth as it is in heaven is a humoristic journey through eternity of the four characters of this story. But this eternal rest will have little rest. In this paradise there won t be much more than themselves, and in this situation they will have to face a new existence that condemns them to bear themselves for the whole eternity. An existence in which they ll have to fight once more against their own weaknesses, contradictions, doubts and needs, but this time with the remote hope of a happy ending that can free them from the unsolved mysteries of human existence. Paradoxically, in this show the characters survival capacity doesn t disappear once they are dead. They will all need to adapt to this new situation. To understand how this new world works they will need to think about what is a slot-machine doing there and why it seems that every time they play it life moves on in one direction or another. If we knew that fate is the main actor in our lives, would we then live more relaxed in our clumsiness? Or would we be even more anxious? Just as if they were the characters of a cartoon, the slot-machine will act as a puppet master that directs the performers, transforming them and making them interact in an unpredictable manner. Nevertheless, fate, also represents a door of hope: what if one day the slot-machine finally takes them to the desired eternal rest?
TRANSFORMATIONS AND IDENTITY Meanwhile the slot-machine seems to have fun playing with their destiny. One day it brings them a new friend. Another day it transports them to a tropical beach, an Olympic competition or force them to do the arduous household chores. This unpredictability will also transform their gender; they will need then to learn how to relate as girlfriends. In any case, being men, being women or not one thing or the other, they will keep being subject to the same challenge: to bear themselves no matter how their landscape changes. At the end, we must admit that they are already pretty trained at it. On earth as it is in heaven is a show that uses humour and irony to present an insane hypothesis about what death could be. A death that is only a distorted copy of existence, a grotesque story of life as a continuous search without a final destination, an unpredictable journey in which fate plays a much more important role than we expected. This journey is only a path to dig into the depths of human condition. Into what brings us closer or moves us further away from one another. Maybe if this journey brings us somewhere is to the revelation that in essence we are who we are, we are the way we are and that we ll have to drag our existence until death do us part, or maybe not!
COLLECTIVE CREATION On earth as it is in heaven is a dance theatre show created and directed by Mar Gómez in collaboration with Xavier Martínez. The creation development has been approached as a collective process. With the aim of summing up four creative universes with their own identity and characteristics the company invited four singular and established artists into this creative adventure: Álvaro de la Peña, director of Cia. Iliacán; Matías Marré, director of Cia. Atempo Circ; Xavier Martínez, codirector of Cia. Mar Gómez and Carlos Fernández, performer and choreographer with a long career. The result has been a multidisciplinary dance theatre show in the style of Cia. Mar Gómez, characterized by a special boldness in the search for theatricality in the movement, a story-telling founded on surreal elements and an undeniable humoristic tone. A tone that has left some space for the depth in its most emotional aspects through these characters that will go from the most innocent laugh to the most sarcastic; from tenderness to sadness; from nostalgia to the most pathetic scenes. A show for all audiences, with the capacity to reach as much those who want to have a good laugh as those that want to get lost in the subtleties of a poetical, theatrical, hybrid and alive artistic speech.
ARTISTIC CREDITS INDOOR SHOW FOR ALL AUDIENCES DURATION: 65 Artistic director: Mar Gómez and Xavier Martínez Choreography: Collective Performers: Álvaro de la Peña, Carlos Fernández, Matías Marré and Xavier Martínez Set design: Joan Jorba Set building: Jorba-Miró Costume design: Mariel Soria Costume: Goretti Lightning design and technician: Carles Borràs Sound design: Mar Gómez and Xavier Martínez Director s assistant: Xavier Biel Production and distribution: Marta Riera Comunication and production assistance: Paula Vallejo Voiceover: Manel Barceló Animation: Paula Delgado and Àlex Verdú / Projecte Fonamentum Image: Sucede Diseño Consciente Photography: Fernando Prats and Josep Aznar Video: Jordi Orobitg LINK OF THE TRAILER OF THE SHOW: https: /www.youtube.com/watch?v=lftltz0uqna
THE PRESS SAID Few voices like the one of Mar Gómez explain daily life, while dancing and smiling with theatre show, some characters and si- ( ) You don t know if you are watching a slyness ( ) a dance that is close, communicative, a cheerful journey although she also because it is actually a fusion of all, fitting tuations close to clowns or a dance show, drops some harsh truths using good arguments and surrounded by a fantasy realism the them perfectly and giving personality to show. JORDI SORA, dance critic in Escena de la memòria and Recomana DAVID ELFA, dance critic in Teatre Barcelona The four performers put on a fortunate staging, that shows off in a precise dance, highlighting its scenic personality and that takes in various generations of dancers. The theatre of the absurd, the grotesque and the surrealist aesthetics mix in an agile and fruitful choreographic contemporary dance vocabulary On earth as it is in heaven offers Cia. Mar Gomez s well known creative universe but this time it assumes bigger risks through its gestural language that is clearly a point of inflexion in the evolution of the company that definitely favors its style CARMEN DEL VAL, dance critic in El País
CONTACT MARTA RIERA tour@ciamargomez.com +0034 932 2216 695 www.ciamargomez.com www.facebook.com/cia.m.gomez @ciamargomez This show is a coproduction of Grec 2016 Barcelona Festival and Cia. Mar Gómez CIA. MAR GÓMEZ Cia. Mar Gómez is supported by: