Barcelona

by Bess Wohl

I mean here I am in Spain with, like, a totally hot local Spanish guy from a tapas bar and we're drinking Rioja and I mean, if this isn't the ultimate romantic, like, you know, like Dos Equis guy fantasy? Do you guys have that commercial?

Late one night in Barcelona, an American tourist goes home with a handsome Spaniard. What begins as a flirty one-night stand becomes an invitation to danger, as the personal and the political unsettlingly intertwine.

By turns funny, sexy and surprising, Bess Wohl's seductive thriller opened at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, in October 2024.

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5, rounded down.

Looking over the list of Wohl's plays here, I was astounded to learn I've read them all - and most of them I have liked a LOT. This one is just being published now, although it originally premiered stateside back in 2016, but apparently was revised for its recent London debut in a glitzy production marking Lily Collins' stage debut.

Although Collins would seem to be an ideal actress for the part, and I could see her natural charm and wit overcoming the inherent flaws, the truth is that her character Irene is really unlikeable, bordering on despicable.

Her partner, Manuel, is not given much to do till the end, so he somewhat fades into the background for most of the 80 minutes. And that contrived ending just compounds the problem, making a mawkish mess of what till then had been a somewhat flat rom-com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl-dU...
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-...
https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/bar...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lif...

[Miriam Chappell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Set in Barcelona, but really dismissive of Catalonia, the place it is set??? It's like imagine someone wrote a play and set it in Glasgow but then the play is about Bri-ish culcha

[Lucía · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una versión moderna de "A streetcar named Desire". Adoré

[Ashleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bess Wohl certainly has a talent for dialogue. A two hander which unfolds over the course of an act and everything is not all that it first appears to be. Some great monologue material here.