Premiered the 5th December 2006 at Casa de América in Madrid.
For or against? Only a few decades ago, this question was still being put to the customers of the barber’s shop. As well as the grooming and shaving service, the barber offered to lead the conversation as sparring partner or flatterer. This might have been a household derivation from the old controversies of the 15th to 18th centuries in which the contenders each defended diametrically opposed opinions. The arguments might deal with everyday themes (dispute between water and wine), moral themes (the morality of the theatre) or religious themes (dispute between the soul and the body), thus under such elementary models, innumerable controversies originated between two opposed arguments.
As is natural, there cannot be theatre without conflict, and in our interpretation today, the drama dispute turns to its fundamental protagonist-antagonist structure. So we have suppressed any derivation of the argument that is not strictly the essential dispute: just words and the presence of the contenders.
The debate about bullfighting is prominent amid recurrent controversies. It has been so for centuries, not only between countries that practice bullfighting rituals but also in others that denounce it because of the supposed mistreatment of animals. The present-day increasing tendency to protect animals, however, now adds greater virulence to the traditional argument.
Nonetheless, bullfighting has for centuries resisted the numerous endeavours to have it suppressed. It has survived all of the counter-attacks unscathed, consolidating itself as a first-rate artistic language so that today it continues to be the second language that Spain has in common with South America. The cultures of Spain and South America are interwoven not only by the language but also by art. This is something that brings us closer together. It is precisely this large bullfighting family extending over the two continents that has consolidated the establishment of bullfighting. But if it is to survive in the future, we aficionados should not give up the debate, and rather than radically rejecting the anti-bullfighting arguments, let us also be capable of understanding the reasons for opposing bullfighting. Only by accepting that the existence of the bullfighting ritual is above its inevitable calamities will we persuade modern society to understand the importance of conserving this art.
This is what this controversy is about.
Albert Boadella
(In memory of my dear friend,
the matador Manolo Vázquez)
Albert Boadella
Ramón Fontserè
Xavier Boada
Els Joglars sale a hombros y por la puerta grande en Ávila
Avila digital
22/07/2007 - María Cuenca - Auditorio Municipal de San Francisco, Ávila
La Controversia del toro y el torero deja en evidencia los aspectos más positivos que destacan los aficionados a la fiesta, y también los más negativos a los que recurren quienes denuncian el maltrato animal.
Pitos y palmas
Diario de Noticias
26/06/2007 - Pedro Zabalza
Teatro Gayarre de Pamplona Boadella nos trae un Joglars mínimo. No por su calidad, que cualquier cosa de Els Joglars es ya grande, sino por su formato y duración: Apenas setenta minutos dura esta Controversia del toro y el torero, un espectáculo para sólo dos actores, sin más escenografía que un pequeño redondel de arena. Sin efectos de luces, sin música, con el vestuario imprescindible, y sin otro apoyo para su interés que la palabra.
Boadella en el Café Gijón
La Razón
07/12/2006 - Miguel Ayanz
...esta "Controversia" es uno de los textos más maduros, redondos y meditados de Boadella. Implacable con lo "políticamente correcto" desde el pensamiento profundo, enemigo de modas, de mandangas ecologistas y ridiculeces modernas, armado de argumentos valiosos -muchos escuchados cien veces, otros novedosos, todos en cualquier caso inteligentes-, Boadella se permite el lujo de ser magnánimo con su adversario, al que deja hablar, criticar, insultar si hace falta. Un adversario al que, sobre todo, sabe escuchar (no siempre ocurre a la inversa). Desde aquí mi aplauso al Boadella contestatario que se atreve a no ser rebaño.
Albert Boadella, pasión por la fiesta
El Cultural. El Mundo
07/12/2006 - Javier Villán
Su pasión por los toros ha llevado a Albert Boadella a escribir 'Controversia del toro y el torero', que se representa hasta el día 10 en la Casa de América de Madrid.
Un Boadella a cornadas
La Vanguardia
06/12/2006 | 11:42 - David Barba
Els Joglars tienen una nueva obra que, de momento, estrenan en Madrid. Aparentemente una aproximación al mundo del toreo, pero también mucho más que eso: una estocada a cierto buenismo políticamente correcto.
"Es la obra más íntima de mi vida en la que la palabra es crucial"
Huelva Información
05/12/2006 - Luis Nieto
La compañía catalana Els Joglars estrena hoy en Madrid, en el anfiteatro de La Casa de América, 'Controversia del toro y el torero', cuyo autor y director es Albert Boadella.