OLIU,
THE LITTLE WOODCUTTER

THE CRITICS HAVE WRITTEN:

Pictures Jesús M. Atienza. PUTXINEL·LI. 18/04/2012

‘Oliu, el petit llenyataire’

Although there is a part of the show in which the story is explained with shadows, Oliu, the little woodcutter is basically a work of puppet type "pupo" (top rod puppet): with a vertical rod that supports the puppet's head and two strings to move the arms. Thought for acting in theaters, gets upon the stage a small platform of a very austere aesthetic, with a small screen in the background, where the shadows are projected and with entries in the two extremes.
In this podium, Oliu listen the tale that his father tells him before going to sleep, which, as "Cañellas" says at the beginning, "is a story within a tale... and a tale within a story". The father's tale contains all the traditional symbolic elements: the house of the forest, three brothers, fire ..., and ends up, in effect, in a recreation of the same act of narrating.
Rocamora Teatre has taste for storytelling. It shows in the quiet pace with which Carles Cañellas and Susanna Rodríguez cooking Oliu the little woodcutter. Although there is some repetition -even though this is a dramaturgical bet in which we will not interfere-, the tale progresses at the speed required by the close relationship established between who tells and who listen, it flows creating an intimate connection and getting the audience to take away home a simple -seemingly- feeling of wellbeing. A real learning.
In this process, Rocamora not only heals the rhythm, the treatment of traditional narrative elements and the use of magic, connected with a live vision of the forest and nature, but also the language. From the names of the "brothers" of Oliu (Oliver), Boix (Boxwood) and Saüc (Elder), to the meaning explanation of the word "disassemble", throughout the show there is the express wish to use and make live in the child viewer a language rich in nuances, in fair correspondence with the universe it creates. This entire collect gently the audience provides them an experience that perhaps seems to be more typical of other times but, from here, along with Rocamora Teatre, we claim.

Cesc Martínez. PUTXINEL·LI. 18/04/2012