Benvingut de nou, amic Lluís! will be performed on Saturday 15 April at 9 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. in Plaça del Mercadal.
Reus, 11 April 2023
“Reus 1900. Festa Modernista” is committed to the production of a large-format show that vindicates the figure of Lluís Domènech i Montaner, the starting point of this year’s celebration. For this reason, on Saturday evening, 15th April, in the Plaça del Mercadal, there will be two performances of the play Benvingut de nou, amic Lluís!, a production created especially for the occasion, which reviews the friendship between the architect and the politician Pau Font de Rubinat, and the evolution of the city at the height of the modernist period.
Casa Navàs, promoter of Benvingut de nou, amic Lluís! together with the Reus Promoció Agency, commissioned the text of the show to the Reus writer Rosa Pagès, and the artistic direction to the company, also from the city, Producciones Lucky & Luke, while the executive production has been entrusted to Sílvia Sagalà and David Fernàndez, directors of “Reus 1900. Festa Modernista”. As for the cast, the company has featured outstanding actors and actresses from the area, such as Gerard Domènech, Joan Manuel Brunet, Irene Benavent, Tuni Salvadó and Neus Ceballos, and extras from the Associació Mandrilia, Bravium Teatre and Amics del Cavall de Reus.
The show lasts about 35 minutes and will be performed twice, at 9 p.m. and again at 10.30 p.m. this coming Saturday, 15 April. The action will take place on the balconies of the Casa Navàs and other buildings, but also in the square itself.
Domènech i Montaner and Reus
One of the fundamental axes of “Reus 1900. Festa Modernista” is the performance of shows depicting different moments of the city’s most glorious period. The main show will be Benvingut de nou, amic Lluís!
A play created expressly for the occasion explains the friendship forged between Lluís Domènech i Montaner and the Reus politician Pau Font de Rubinat. In fact, it was the latter who introduced the architect to the bourgeois circles of Reus. The two shared Catalanist ideas and militancy, a fact that led them to take part in intense gatherings at the Círcol and the Teatre Fortuny. All this is located in a city in full transformation, wrapped in an air of modernity and with social conflicts in the streets.
Alongside these figures appear two maids who are eager to explain some curiosities and a bourgeois woman who suffers from a mental illness. A story that straddles the period between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, showing the evolution of the city during the modernist period.
“Reus 1900. Festa Modernista”, the first great modernist festival in Reus
On 15 and 16 April, Reus will experience its first great modernist festival. A weekend in which people will travel back in time through more than fifty events including historical re-enactment activities, shows, routes to discover the main buildings and the modernist heritage of the period, workshops, and gastronomy.
A celebration based on historical rigour with the participation of more than a hundred reenactors from organisations in the city, between Plaça del Mercadal and Casa Navàs, which would not be possible without the involvement of more than fifty associations and companies from Reus.
Furthermore, “Reus 1900. Festa Modernista” aims to the citizens to make the celebration their own; therefore, it encourages everyone to take to the streets and dress as our ancestors did during the modernist period. For all those who wish to dress in period costume, a costume protocol has been drawn up, divided by social classes, which can be downloaded from the website (www.reus1900.cat), and which includes offers on clothes and accessories in the shop El Barato, and the contact details of the dressmaker Ana de la Cruz, a specialist in period costume.
Information and ticket sales
The whole program for “Reus 1900. Festa Modernista” can be checked on the website www.reus1900.cat, a space where all the dozens of activities, workshops, guided tours, and shows are detailed. Likewise, you can also find the “Costume Protocol” that has been defined for the celebration.
The event can also be followed through Instagram through the user @festaReus1900. Tickets for the different activities are also available for purchase on the website.
“Reus 1900. Festa modernista” is organized by Casa Navàs, Reus Promoció, and the Reus City Council, with the financial support of the Tarragona Provincial Council, and the sponsorship of Vermuts Miró, the Oliva Motor Group, and Estrella Damm.