2,000 years of Roman theater in Sagunto: empire, ruins and art

The Roman Theater of Sagunto is a poetic geography of the Valencian territory. Throughout the centuries, its Roman ruins served as inspiration for Andalusian writers, such as Benmohamed Ar-Razi or Al-Munim AlHimyari, and Christians, such as Lope de Vega or Gaspar Escolano, until in the 19th century the romantic cultural hegemony took precedence. the Iberian resistance of Sagunto to the classicist loas. The Saguntine immolation before the Carthaginian Hannibal was incorporated into the resistance myths of the Spanish identity narrative. The fight against Napoleon in the French War began the process of national creation.

Myth is the dung of history. Its political use was the ferment for the legitimization of all the European nations created in the 19th century.. This falsification has resurfaced with the intention of exalting a new Spanish nationalism in the face of shared sovereignty with the European Union, the multiculturalism recognized by the United Nations and other peninsular nationalisms (also doped with foundational fictions).. The Saguntine resistance, the Numantine defense, Covadonga, Pelayo, Santiago el Mayor, Viriato and the use of the verb to enter in reference to the Visigoths and invade for the Muslims shaped a Christian discourse on origins, which the historiography of Modesto Lafuente and the painting of the 19th century transmitted to the collective heritage, and that the military dictatorships of the 20th century seasoned with imperial epic and a monolithically national-Catholic education after the Civil War.

On August 26, 1896, during the government of Cánovas del Castillo, the Roman Theater of Sagunto was the first Valencian space declared a National Monument, but it would not be until the second third of the 20th century when the first consolidation and addition actions were carried out to restore the place. These focused on imitating the existing ruin and lacked an adequate archaeological methodology, which is why the picturesque character was accentuated until its distortion as architecture. In 1986, the Generalitat Valenciana, chaired by Joan Lerma, commissioned the architects Giorgio Grassi and Manuel Portaceli to rehabilitate the theater.

One of the criteria followed was the repair of the artistic space by recovering the scene, as it was conceived, and replacing the ruin with a new contemporary use.. The arts would return to the theater. The architectural work suffered almost twenty years of litigation, and remained in the face of the impossibility of reversal, despite the order of the Superior Court of Justice, confirmed by the Supreme Court, to demolish the wall and raise the stands.

For 40 years, Sagunt a Escena has housed the classical theater of the most important companies. A summer festival that year after year brings together thousands of spectators in its stands. Inma Expósito has been its director since 2021. “As artistic director, I maintained the plural and heterogeneous dynamics of the festival, creating a connection with the heritage space through the Greco-Latin programming and classical theater, as well as giving voice to new avant-garde artistic forms.. We try to collect all the concerns by hiring accredited names in the direction, authorship and interpretation”.

To celebrate these four decades, in the edition that will take place between August 3 and 27, authors such as Aristophanes, William Shakespere and Sophocles stand out, as well as the directions of Magüi Mira, Jaume Policarpo, Andrés Lima and Eva Zapico, and actors and actresses with a consolidated career such as Belén Rueda, Cayetana Guillén Cuervo and Pepe Viyuela. “We have also opted for international proposals by Josef Nadj, Christina Pluhar and Vinzenzo Capezzuto”, comments Expósito, “looking for a program that generates stimuli among the public, that arouses concerns, that explores the relationship between theater, memory and history”.

The artistic transversality is another of the bets of the dean festival in the Valencian summer environment. From those first musical performances by Silvio Rodríguez, Franco Battiato, Raimon, Pablo Milanés and Aute in the eighties, to the presence in the next edition of María José Llergo, Maria del Mar Bonet and Sandra Monfort, composers and groups of persuasion have dotted the roman scene. “We want to show the role of theatre, dance and music as a necessary discursive practice in our day to day. Community health goes through a lively cultural debate, to confront different visions of the world and contemplate the wealth of nuances of the human condition”, concludes the director.