How many times have you seen the men around you cry?

BarcelonaMateu, Eduard, and Oriol have been lifelong friends. They're now 50 years old and have never seen each other cry. The situation, common among many male friendships, explodes at a dinner party when Oriol asks the big question: "Why is it so hard for men to cry in public? We're friends. Why have we never seen each other cry?" This is the trigger forA closed menu, the new comedy by Jordi Casanovas (Vilafranca del Penedès, 1978), which arrives this Friday at La Villarroel after having been shown in theaters in 40 Catalan municipalities. Directed by Lázaro García and produced by Hause & Richman, the play delves into the difficulties men face in expressing their emotions through three characters with three different ways of facing their masculinity.

One of the ingredients that led Casanovas to write about this subject was a study that stated that the area in which heterosexual men find it easiest to show their emotional selves is sports. On stage, the playwright unites football (the three friends are passionate about it) and cooking (one of them is a two-Michelin-star chef) to build the ecosystem in which they will be presented with the possibility of opening up emotionally. "Crying is the last frontier of vulnerability, of showing emotions. Will they be able to overcome it?" Casanovas asks.

To delve deeper, the show moves between three characters—played by Roger Coma, Òscar Muñoz, and Joan Arqué—with diverse perspectives on masculinity in today's society. "Oriol has no idea what's happening around him; he doesn't know how to act or how to review himself. Mateu tries to adapt to the context but doesn't quite know how to do it; he doesn't have the right tools. And Eduard simply refuses," Casanovas explains. The playwright uses a work of his, Pack, to start the melon. Eduard, played by Roger Coma, comes out very angry after seeing that show about the Manada case. "He's the archetype of '80s masculinity; he doesn't see the need to change if his way of functioning has been operational for years," Coma emphasizes.

Beside him, the friends try to review their past in a less harsh way, trying to reflect on those attitudes and behaviors that are now unacceptable. "Mateu is experiencing a declared relationship crisis. He's done some prior deconstruction work, but his friends question whether he did it of his own free will or because of family circumstances," notes Muñoz. The third in discord, Oriol, asks questions that "open a wound that goes far beyond the moment" and "puts everyone in a huge problem with unforeseeable consequences," adds Arqué.

Dishes to travel to the past

A closed menu It takes place in the kitchen of Oriol's restaurant, where he's going through a crisis and facing many dilemmas about what to do with his professional career. During the show, the chef will cook a series of dishes for his friends that will transport them to less-than-pleasant moments. "The kitchen is often a place of enjoyment, but Oriol experiences what happens if the dishes he prepares for them take them to unpleasant places, places they don't feel like trying. Should we look at the past with nostalgia or by reviewing what we didn't do right?" asks Lázaro García. Regarding setting the comedy in a kitchen, Casanovas gives two reasons: "On the one hand, many successful men in Catalonia are chefs, and, conversely, many of them received their culinary knowledge from their mothers. On the other hand, I think a kitchen is a place of great intimacy, of explaining many things."