Actor Alberto San Juan arrives in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with his monologue 'Capitalist Self-Portrait 2026'. Tickets for the performance on Saturday, September 26, are already sold out, with only those for Sunday 27 available at Talleres Palermo.
Alberto San Juan returns to the Canary Islands' stages with a show that blends personal memory and social critique. The actor, born in 1968 and known for his career in film and theatre, presents in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria his monologue 'Capitalist Self-Portrait 2026', a work he premiered a decade ago and now revisits with new nuances.
The event takes place at Talleres Palermo, the former carpentry shop in the Guanarteme neighbourhood converted into a cultural space. There, the audience has responded en masse: tickets for the performance on Saturday, September 26, have sold out, and only seats remain for Sunday 27. The space, which combines coworking and an urban garden, thus becomes an extension of the creative resistance that San Juan has cultivated in his Teatro del Barrio in Madrid over a weekend.
The actor, who studied Journalism before dedicating himself to theatre, defines this work as an exercise in 'stand-up comedy' that addresses his biography and, at the same time, that of an entire country. The text was born in 2014, a year marked by the economic crisis that began in 2008, but also by a climate of popular mobilization. Twelve years later, San Juan acknowledges that the enthusiasm has faded, although the awareness that democracy is 'insufficiently democratic' remains. His aim, as he explains, is to 'have fun together', convinced that fun is a 'necessary collaborator of imagination'.
The monologue traverses the transformations of Spain through the eyes of a man who grew up among the illustrations of his father, the illustrator Máximo San Juan, and the voice of his mother, the broadcaster Pilar Guijarro. This intellectual environment first led him to the Faculty of Information Sciences, where he shared a desk with Antonio de la Torre, and later to the editorial offices of Diario 16, where he worked for two years in the local section while balancing journalism with his first theatre classes.
His leap into cinema came almost by chance. A casting director, Sara Vilbatúa, saw him perform in an alternative venue with his newly formed company Animalario and called him for an audition. This led to his participation in 'Airbag' (1997), which changed his life. This success was followed by titles such as 'The Other Side of the Bed' and 'Football Days'. However, San Juan has always prioritised theatre. Alongside friends and mentors like Willy Toledo, Ernesto Alterio, and Nathalie Poza, he kept Animalario alive for 15 years, exploring uncomfortable themes such as the monarchy and the financial system.
Despite winning a Goya for 'Under the Stars' and starring in the recent series about Balenciaga, San Juan advocates for a life away from glamour. He confesses that, as a father, he has 'enjoyed the park life like a gentleman' and relishes it. For him, art has a pedagogical function: 'We all educate ourselves through art,' he states, and that is why he seeks to ensure the audience has fun while reflecting.
The performance on Sunday, September 27, at Talleres Palermo (Calle Juan de Quesada, 15) will be the last opportunity to see the actor in the Gran Canaria capital. Tickets, priced at 15 euros, can be purchased on the cultural space's website. San Juan promises a show that combines humour, irony, and social critique, in an intimate format that seeks the complicity of the audience.
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