{"id":4843,"date":"2025-06-20T09:30:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T07:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/espectacles\/the-lower-depths\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:13:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T12:13:27","slug":"the-lower-depths","status":"publish","type":"espectacles","link":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/en\/espectacles\/the-lower-depths\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lower Depths"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Lower Depths\n<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The labyrinthine corridors of the subway are the setting chosen by Carmen Portaceli for her updated adaptation of The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky, a play that is \u201centirely relevant,\u201d according to the director, as it addresses the moral misery caused by economic hardship.<\/p>

Gorky wrote this piece in 1902, portraying the lives of 17 characters from the most impoverished layers of Russian urban society, living in miserable conditions in a lodging house near the Volga.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Carme Portaceli and Albert Tola have relocated the residence of this group of destitute individuals to the subway of a modern-day city, reducing the number of characters to a dozen in order to \u201cachieve a more oppressive dramatic form,\u201d according to Tola. However, the two playwrights have kept most of Gorky’s original text intact because \u201cit is tremendously contemporary.\u201d <\/p>

\u201cWe chose the subway because it is a space that during the day is used by those who have not yet fallen into destitution and are on their way to work, and at night it can serve another purpose if taken over by those who can\u2019t afford housing,\u201d explained set designer Paco Azor\u00edn.<\/p>

\u201cDuring the day there is a commercial life, and at night another commerce begins,\u201d added Portaceli, referring to the fact that \u201cunfortunately, the same values and hierarchies are upheld underground as above.\u201d<\/p>

The underworld hierarchy is controlled by the character played by Manel Barcel\u00f3, who exploits the poor and charges them for protection \u201cin pure mafia style,\u201d according to Portaceli.<\/p>

This blackmailer named Kostiliov merges two characters from Gorky\u2019s original work: the innkeeper and the police officer.<\/p>

Manel Barcel\u00f3 built his character \u201ctaking this dual origin into account,\u201d so that it is clear his power \u201ccomes from corruption.\u201d<\/p>

Hope is one of the central themes of the play and is personified by Sveta, a young woman who offers this small community of cynics the possibility of change.<\/p>

\u201cThe characters come into contact with hope, and they themselves reject it,\u201d Portaceli pointed out, adding that this is \u201cvery current\u201d and should lead us \u201cto reflection.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a very revolutionary play,\u201d affirmed the director, emphasizing that \u201cthose responsible for such misery do not appear in the play\u2014just as those responsible for our current crisis continue acting as if they were blameless.\u201d<\/p>

Tola added that this production \u201cis more ambiguous than the original\u201d in pointing out who is to blame, because \u201ctoday\u2019s mechanisms leading to destitution are more hidden.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe misery that existed in Russia in 1902 led to the communist revolution. Here we\u2019re worse off, because there\u2019s no revolution on the horizon to solve any of this,\u201d lamented Bellvel.<\/p>

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Play The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky<\/p>

Direction Carme Portaceli<\/p>

Cast: Nao Albet \u2013 David Bag\u00e9s \u2013 Manel Barcel\u00f3 \u2013 Mohamed el Bouhabi \u2013 Roger Casamajor \u2013 Llu\u00efsa Castell \u2013 Jordi Collet \u2013 Daniela Feixas \u2013 Gabriela Flores \u2013 Lina Lambert \u2013 Albert P\u00e9rez \u2013 Xavier Ripoll<\/p>

Translation from Russian Helena Vidal \u2013 Jordi Bordas i Coca<\/p>

Original music Dani Nel\u00b7lo \u2013 Jordi Prats<\/p>

Movement Ferran Carvajal<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Set design Paco Azor\u00edn<\/p>

Costume design Lluna Albert<\/p>

Lighting Miguel Mu\u00f1oz<\/p>

Sound Pepe Bel<\/p>

Makeup and hair Toni Santos<\/p>

Assistant director Merc\u00e8 Vila Godoy<\/p>

Production Teatre Nacional de Catalunya<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Lower Depths The labyrinthine corridors of the subway are the setting chosen by Carmen Portaceli for her updated adaptation of The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky, a play that is \u201centirely relevant,\u201d according to the director, as it addresses the moral misery caused by economic hardship. Gorky wrote this piece in 1902, portraying the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3930,"template":"","class_list":["post-4843","espectacles","type-espectacles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/espectacles\/4843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/espectacles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/espectacles"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/espectacles\/4843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4844,"href":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/espectacles\/4843\/revisions\/4844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carmeportaceli.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}