Late night in Barcelona. An American tourist goes home with a handsome Spaniard. What begins as a carefree, one-night stand becomes an invitation to danger, as the personal and political catastrophically intertwine.
By turns funny, sexy and surprising, BARCELONA is a seductive thriller that will keep audiences guessing - exploring the fantasy of who we pretend to be, versus the truth of who we are.
With star turns from Lily Collins (Emily in Paris, To The Bone, Mank) and Álvaro Morte (Money Heist, Wheel of Time, Immaculate), Lynette Linton directs the West End premiere of Bess Wohl’s explosive play - running for 12 weeks only at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre.
__Assisted Performances__
Audio Described – Monday 25th November 8.00pm
Captioned – Monday 2nd December 8.00pm
In Lynette Linton’s production neither the suspense nor the humour hit home, the mix often more awkward than unsettling. The biggest in a handful of plot revelations lacks emotional impact and does not so much shed light on earlier events as render them distractingly implausible. Given the considerable creative talent involved, this is a curiously flat affair, feeling longer than its interval-free 90 minutes, with little sense of these strangers being transformed by a shared experience.
Collins really is good as Irene, radiating effervescent naivety and as giddy as a pony while finding the vulnerability in a sheltered 35-year-old who has never found the strength to challenge her own life choices. Complicating facts emerge: Manuel has a wife with whom he is estranged; she is about to marry an upright morality freak back home in Denver who comes from the same corn-fed, pioneer Christian stock as she does but whom, she manages to admit to herself for the first time, she doesn’t love. There is a lovely delicate poignancy to her admission that her favourite thing to do is steal into the houses she sells as part of her job in real estate and pretend for an afternoon another life is hers.
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