Canet launches its autumn cultural programme with comedian María Juan
Canet d'En Berenguer, a town next to Sagunto in the Camp de Morvedre district, launches its autumn cultural programme on 25 September, with around twenty events running until December, including a show by comedian María Juan on 9 October.
The council of Canet d'En Berenguer has announced the programme of activities that will fill the last quarter of the year in the town, right next to Sagunto within the Camp de Morvedre district. The line-up brings together close to twenty events between 25 September and 20 December, held mostly at the municipal Auditori (auditorium) and other venues around town, spanning genres as different as comedy, theatre, music, and activities for children.
Local councils in small districts like Camp de Morvedre often use this closed, season-long line-up format: setting every event in advance stops two activities from clashing on the same weekend and lets families pencil dates into their own calendar months ahead. For neighbouring councils, including Sagunto's, it also works as a reference for what already works when designing their own line-up.
The season opens with an art exhibition rather than a live show: "Somos historia del arte" (We are art history), organised by Afacam, the local association for families of people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, which opens on 25 September itself and kicks off the rest of the programme.
Canet's mayor, Pere Antoni, has explained that the local government's aim is not for every activity to appeal to the whole community, but for everyone to find at least one event to their taste among the range of styles on offer. That approach explains why the bill deliberately mixes genres that have little in common across the three months.
The most anticipated date arrives on 9 October at 7pm, when Valencian actress and comedian María Juan takes the stage at the Auditori with free admission to present "Sofisticada", her newest show. After touring with "Senyora de la comedia" (Lady of comedy), she picks up that title again, using humour to look at how her understanding of her own career has changed since then.
A month later, on 7 November and also with free entry, the Bramant company joins Teatre Escalante to perform "Princeses, cavallers i dracs" (Princesses, knights and dragons), a play performed by teenagers that questions the distorted image adults often have of young people. The production was already one of last season's theatre surprises, and its run in Canet builds on that success.
Music gets its own slot on 29 November with "Flamenco bandístico" (band-style flamenco), a project born from a collaboration with flautist and composer Óscar de Manuel, who has won several international awards; tickets for this show cost five euros, unlike most of the programme, which is free. The line-up also includes comedian Eugeni Alemany, a showman, scriptwriter, journalist and philologist born in Sueca (Valencia) in 1976, best known for TV shows about the Valencian language and culture such as "Trau la llengua" (Stick out your tongue), adding another recognisable name to the autumn schedule.
Children also get their own space, with the productions "El secuestro de la bibliotecaria" (The librarian's kidnapping) and "Juan sin Miedo" (Fearless Juan) aimed at families, alongside musical performances by the Societat Musical de Canet and the Rondalla Sant Pere, two long-standing local groups.
Between 25 October and 28 November, the town will also hold the 14th edition of the Certamen Amateur de Teatre Vila de Canet (Canet amateur theatre contest), an event the mayor points to as one of the projects the town is proudest of, given the effort it takes to keep it running year after year; the contest continues to showcase plays performed in Valencian as its trademark. That choice, like Alemany's presence on the bill, touches on a recurring language-identity debate in the towns of Camp de Morvedre, where cultural programming has historically split the spotlight between Valencian and Spanish (castellano).
The season closes on Sunday 20 December with the now-traditional Christmas concert, wrapping up almost three months of near-continuous programming.
Although the agenda belongs to Canet d'En Berenguer, its closeness to Sagunto and its place within the Camp de Morvedre district make it a regular cultural option for residents of neighbouring towns in the comarca, especially on the free dates at the Auditori. For Sagunto residents looking for autumn cultural plans within the comarca, this agenda is one of the closest options outside their own town. Based on El Periódico de Aquí, with additional information from Wikipedia on Eugeni Alemany.