BARCELONA to Open San Jose Stage Company Season 44
The production marks the opening of the theatre's 2026/27 season.
San Jose Stage Company will launch its 2026/27 season with the Bay Area premiere of Barcelona by Tony Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Bess Wohl. Directed by Artistic Director Randall King. The production features Adria Swan as Irene and Johnny Moreno as Manuel, and runs September 23 through October 18, 2026, with press opening Saturday, September 26.
After midnight in Barcelona, American tourist Irene meets Manuel, a magnetic but brooding Spanish stranger. What begins as a carefree one-night stand quickly takes an unexpected turn, curdling into a volatile game of cat and mouse as attraction gives way to suspicion and bravado begins to crack.
Funny, sensual and full of sharp turns, Barcelona follows two strangers drawn together by desire and into a night neither can easily escape. As their exchanges swing between mutual destruction, dark humor and awkward moments of grace, both are forced to confront the stories they tell themselves and the truths they would rather keep hidden.
“Barcelona exposes our assumptions, what we project onto strangers, and how much of that reflects our own desires or fears,” says director Randall King. “Irene and Manuel retreat into a world of their own until that fantasy begins to unravel. With only two people onstage, there’s nowhere to hide. Every glance, hesitation and shift in power matters. It’s provocative, witty and surprising.”
The creative team includes Randall King (Director), Bridgette Loriaux (Movement Director), Iliana Karbowski (Resident Stage Manager), Robert Pickering (Scenic Design), Abra Berman (Costume Design), Maurice Vercoutere (Lighting Design), Steve Schoenbeck (Sound Design), Erik Scanlon (Video Design), and Leyla Carleo (Props Coordinator).
The Stage is no stranger to Bess Wohl’s work, previously presenting the regional premiere of Wohl’s Grand Horizons in 2023, and earning the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s Excellence in Theatre Award for Entire Production – South Peninsula. The company returns to Wohl following a landmark year for the playwright, with Liberation receiving both the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2026 Tony Award for Best Play.
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