'By Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs': this work of genius is the great present for Spanish theater

At just over thirty years old, Catalans Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs have already made an anthology of all their plays under their first and last names: De Nao Albet y Marcel Borràs . They do it because they can and because they must, as they have had one of the most amazing careers in Spanish theater in recent years. They are no longer the 'enfants terribles' they were a decade ago, because they are no longer children, but they still shoot—they love shooting—like almost no one does on stage. They have already sold out all the tickets at Nave 10 of the Matadero in Madrid (as they always do when they come to the capital). Normally, De Nao Albet y Marcel Borràs , which could already be seen for a few days at the Teatro de la Abadía in 2023 (with another sold out), is a true stroke of genius.

For years, they've been staging their relationship, their friendship, their comings and goings, their anger, clashes, hugs, kisses, and their possible breakup, ever since they started working together at the age of 15. It was Àlex Rigola who put his faith in them for that series called Radicales Libres (Free Radicals), which could be seen at the Teatre Lliure in the late 2000s. Some people still remember Guns, Childs and Videogames from that time, which featured all the Albet/Borràs equipment. Even then, they dreamed of creating contemporary theater that would be seen in London, Paris, Berlin, Prague, or Helsinki. And they succeeded (also because someone believed in them, which is a very important factor).

It's moving to see that this passion for theater still exists in an age of screens and social media. A passion for touching, for squeezing, for something that, without being real, is much more real than this virtual life we ​​live. In other words, what theater has been since the time of Euripides . From Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs, this is a journey through their past, the plays they've worked on, and their future. And we believe it because this is a nod to the whole autofiction thing , what the hell. And it's also what some would call "a modernity," but welcome. And it's a reflection on friendship, much more messed up than love, in case we haven't realized it yet.

It's moving to see that this passion for theater still exists in the age of screens and social media. A passion for touching, for squeezing

All of this with a beautifully pared-down set, an exceptional script , and fantastic bodywork and gestures. Pure, unadorned theater.

Nao Albet and Marcel Borràs—you've probably seen them in a series or film—appear on stage dressed in black, each behind a sound and lighting mixing desk on either side of the "black box" of the stage. A screen in the middle . Nothing more. And with a microphone, they begin to tell us about their lives: how they met, who their girlfriends, their friends, their production company are. It's just them, but we see them all. The magic of theater .

And in this way we also see how a relationship is built, interspersed with famous relationships between creators (such as that of Lope de Vega and Cervantes , such as Voltaire and Rousseau, such as Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud ) in which there has been everything: from the greatest trust to the worst betrayal . They say friendship can do anything, but it's constantly walking a tightrope. At the same time, we enter the convention: invent whatever you want, I'll believe it without it having to be true. What a wonderful way to throw overboard the literality in which we live now.

The play's pacing doesn't give you a second to breathe. It does what it's supposed to: it doesn't overwhelm you and doesn't give you time to get bored. When, in the accumulation of scenes , one falls a little too far, the next one comes along and takes it up a notch (they stretch it out just enough). All to gradually take you to a certain limit. The creators speak of violence and sex without restraint , delving into the darkness and most abject desires of human beings. They exist, even in that neighbor who greets us kindly every morning. Even in ourselves. Putting them into practice is another matter entirely, and that might be classified in the Penal Code. But that's what we're still in the theater for, and that's what it's for, among other things, as Angélica Liddell , someone you remember when you see this play and others, well knows. In Mammón (2015), they proposed a gushing festival of sex, cocaine, and money : the world we live in. In Falsestuff they played with truth and copy and copycats, that thing about a modern thing becoming fashionable and then everyone doing it: the world we live in again.

The creators speak of violence and sex without restraint, entering into the darkness and most abject desires of human beings.

But then there's the humor . With Albet and Borràs (unlike with Liddell), you laugh even when they're talking about killing an audience, because what does it matter anyway? Because they also laugh a lot at themselves, and at the creator's ego, at believing themselves to be the ultimate, which is a common illness in the arts (and in journalism, for that matter). And, in the end, when all this (life) is over, do you know what's left? The hug your friend gives you even though you haven't seen them in years, just to take the piss out of me, as Don Quixote would say. "And that forest doesn't wither!" shouts the elderly Nao to the theater workshop group who come on stage with their arms raised. It's mind-blowing: we see the trees.

Albet and Borràs are staging here the formula they believe to be exhausted after such acclaimed productions as the aforementioned Falsestuff (which won the Max Award for Best Play last year), Mammon , and Atraco, paliza y muerte en Agbanäspach . They said they were splitting up (the theatrical game? The truth?) but they're already working on the opera Los Estunmen , commissioned by the Teatro Real and the Liceu (no small feat) which will premiere in June 2026 at the Teatros del Canal. They now have one week left in Madrid and they've been a huge success. They've been warned for next time. They're one of the best things that's ever happened to us.