Àngel Guimerà was homosexual. I don’t know why it’s still so difficult for us to admit it publicly today. And it is also under this circumstance that he writes The Spiders, a play that speaks of infertility. Not by chance, another homosexual man—who also took quite some time to come out of the closet—would write Yerma years later. It is under social pressure and the obsession of those who cannot have children that Guimerà structures The Spiders, allowing his realist drama to unfold under a suffocating weight of desire and the need for offspring.

The original is set in Barcelona in 1908, but for personal reasons, I’ve rewritten it to take place in Girona in 1968, to give visibility to ordinary people like my parents who, from their shop and far from the Gauche Divine, shared the suffocation of a Francoist regime that made it difficult for them to carry out acts of freedom.

Jordi Prat i Coll

Set Design and Lighting
Marc Salicrú

Costume Design
Montse Amenós

Sound
Jordi Bonet

Musical Direction and Arrangements
Dani Espasa

Make-up and Hair
Àngels Salinas

Assistant Director
Anna Llopart

Set Design Assistant
Josep Iglesias

Costume Assistant
Maria Albaladejo

Set and Props Construction
Taller d’Escenografia Castells SL
Pascualín Estructures Stage Technology SL
Jorba - Miró. Estudi - Taller d’escenografia
Joan Soler Vidal
Jordi Agustí
Miquel Cardiel
Miquel Grima
TNC Technical Teams

Costume and Puppet Making
Goretti Puente
Jan Clot
Ventura i Hosta

Interns from the Institut del Teatre of the Diputació de Barcelona
Montse Escolano (Set Design)
Germán Fernández (Direction)
Laia Nogueras (Direction)

Songs
Children's Choir and Youth Choir of the Orfeó Català

Production
Teatre Nacional de Catalunya

Acknowledgements
Pere Prat, Josep Maria Prat, Mercè Batllori, Ester Prat, Jordi Juanola, Norbert Prat, Xènia Prat, Arnau Juanola, Raquel Massaguer i Gramona.

And very especially to Miquel Prat Valentí and Rosa Coll Grau, to whom we dedicate this performance.

TNC Technical and Management Teams

The play The Spiders, the video installation, and the publication of the script are part of the events commemorating the Year of Guimerà.