Arriaga, theatre in a magnificent building

Drama and comedy become more and more celebrated in Bilbao as soon as summer comes to an end. The plays brought by the Semana Grande (Big Week) leave the city and the stages are taken over by more thoughtful productions. In the wide panorama of the city, the Arriaga Theatre stands out: a must-see for anyone who comes to the city.

A charming free-standing building, eclectic in style, on the banks of the estuary next to the Arenal Bridge. The interior is a delight.

This autumn, in addition to concerts, and among other plays, it offers ‘Love & Money’, by Dennis Kelly; Una noche sin luna’, with Juan Diego Botto‘Todas las hijas’, by Gemma Martínez, with the author herself, as well as Ane Gabarain, Maribel Salas, Sol Maguna and Vito Rogado; ‘Lear’, an adaptation by Richard Sahagún; ‘Los farsantes’, by Pablo Remón; ‘Safo’, with Christina Rosenvinge; and, above all, ‘Ser o no Ser’, with Juan Echanove and Gabriel Garbisu, which adapts a film directed by the brilliant Ernst Lubitsch premiered in 1942 and which constitutes a brilliant symbol of the power of theatre to disarm horror.