Kilometre-zero play in la Seu d’Urgell honours Josep Zulueta

Frequent visitors to the Sala Sant Domènech in la Seu d’Urgell know its layout well. Going there to see a play and finding the stage turned on its head was surprising; learning that the set had been reduced to create a more intimate space made it inviting. Reading the programme before entering revealed no contraindications and, to add to the surprise, the playwrights, actors and even the music were all kilometre-zero — written, performed and sourced locally.

Co-author Isidre Domenjó, with Josep Tomàs, explained that once the premiere nerves had given way to the usual worries about timing, his main challenge in writing was to let real characters break through the wall of fiction. Instead of travelling to places like Redonda, Macondo or Yoknapatawpha, the play remains in the equally singular and little-known territory of the Urgellet. Its stated purpose was to mark the centenary of the death of the multifaceted Josep Zulueta.

The play transports the audience to the 1920s to portray the temperament of the man from Torre del Peu in a region ravaged by phylloxera — without vineyards and therefore in crisis. Zulueta had described these areas in his La Vanguardia articles as “forgotten counties.” His boldness is shown in how seemingly peaceful animals, such as cows, become the catalyst for a broader upheaval. That process of change, retrospectively vindicated by time, drives the drama.

The plot unfolds within a family, revealing desires, fears, sorrows and griefs. It sketches recurring social conflicts: the wealthy versus those who live day to day; the culturally privileged and those excluded from culture; those who leave to seek fortune and those who remain, rooted to the land. Generational tensions surface in disagreements between parents and children and in older people’s distrust of youth. There is also friction between long-standing residents and newcomers, and a reflection on gender roles: women assigned to child-rearing and household work who, in many parts of the Pyrenees, become an unseen counterforce and a community mainstay.

The script also revisits the customary rivalries between neighbouring counties, providing reasons to dance a waltz like Pep Lizandre’s Les Fonts del Segre or to sing songs such as Ballarusca. One minor staging flaw was that, at times, some characters’ voices arrived muffled and were hard to hear. This small defect does not spoil an engaging play that, as its surprising ending suggests, gains additional meaning when seen in perspective.