Judit Colomer and Pau Vinyals cook it and eat it on stage. They set up a table accompanied by a chair to be Judit and Pau, a couple entangled between theater and life. Or, rather, a couple that does theater twenty-four hours a day. Theater in front of the audience and also behind the scenes of loving intimacy. They have been like this for eleven years, since they met during a performance of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. The pleasant coexistence has put Judit and Pau's dream in transition towards a nightmare. The table and the chair are objects loaded with memory. Judit brings up Paul B. Preciado, the philosopher of "queer" theory who defines himself as a "trans man with a non-binary body." When Preciado found himself in an empty apartment in Athens, he concluded that "a table and a chair are a complementary couple that does not allow questions." A little philosophical veneer to reveal that Pau has had a son with Judit, but that he is still as bisexual as when he fell in love with her dressed as the mischievous pixie Puck. A couple trapped in the permanent dialectic of gender ideology. Judit and Pau question the audience. They take out a twenty euro bill and tempt the respectable person to see if anyone is capable of making out on stage. Nobody corresponds to the proposal. Because the problem with 'Tendrament' (Tenderly), as the piece is titled, is that, having reached its midpoint, the viewer still doesn't know what the protagonists are trying to tell him. Mount an Albee or a Bergman? Score some 'Marriage Scenes' by Pepa and Avelino? We want to think not. The invention of Judit and Pau with autofictional features shows that its authors, directors and performers have plenty of ambition. They give it their all - especially Pau climbing walls and doing capers; but the text lacks the creative gasoline that allows it to go beyond the thematic zigzagging. Sexual identity, life as a couple, theater experiences... All of this appears without reaching any destination. Let's hope that Judit and Pau's next production is better furnished.
'Tendrament' theater review (**): Table, chair and a confusing couple
Judit Colomer and Pau Vinyals cook it and eat it on stage. They set up a table accompanied by a chair to be Judit and Pau, an entangled couple...

