The Fernán Gómez Theater. Centro Cultural de la Villa presents La aventura de la palabra, a performance based on Aventura de la palabra en el siglo XX, the inaugural speech at the Royal Spanish Academy by Fernando Fernán Gómez on January 30, 2000. As we celebrate 25 years since this event, led by one of the most important and multifaceted men in Spanish culture of the 20th century — actor, theater director, filmmaker, television series director, playwright, screenwriter, memoirist, with a long and award-winning career — this space within the Culture, Tourism, and Sports Area wants to dedicate this performance as a tribute to his entire trajectory. The actor took seat B at the Academy at the age of 78.
The Royal Spanish Academy welcomed, for the first time in its history, the only actor to join its ranks, recognizing his undeniable literary merits. Fellow academic Francisco Nieva responded to Fernán Gómez’s speech, stating: «We gain with him a significant portion of the practical experience of theater, which has been essential for the evolution of language, the great amplifier, the great transmitter.»
La aventura de la palabra is a version/dramaturgy by Raúl Losánez, directed by Juan Carlos Pérez de la Fuente, and featuring Nancho Novo and Marta Poveda in the cast. Pérez de la Fuente, director of the theater that bears the name of this great actor and writer, believes that Fernán Gómez’s inaugural speech at the Royal Academy is considered by many academics and critics as «one of the best speeches ever heard in such a prestigious institution and a passionate defense of freedom through words.» He also adds, «This project fully aligns with the artistic direction’s criteria and goals, which is for the spirit of Fernán Gómez to be the identity, the soul, and the word of the theater that bears his name. We believe it is just and necessary to do so.»
«Fernán Gómez focused his inaugural speech on the ‘word,’ in its broadest and most ethereal sense. On written and spoken words; on the various uses that humans have made and continue to make of them; on how we have loved and manipulated it, and on how it has accompanied us, in any case, inevitably,» comments Raúl Losánez, responsible for the version and dramaturgy. «We want to pay tribute to the actor, director, and writer by reclaiming his inexhaustible adventure with words to modestly turn it into that ‘theatrical event’ that he himself introduced and symbolized until the end of his days at the Academy,» he adds.
La aventura de la palabra is a production of the Fernán Gómez Theater. Centro Cultural de la Villa in collaboration with the Compañía del Figurín and can be seen from May 20 to June 22, 2025, at the Jardiel Poncela Room of this theater. /
