🎅🏻 The Tapa Weekend: November 22

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | November 22, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #76

🎉 Welcome to a new issue of The Tapa: Weekend Edition! An English-language newsletter about what to do this weekend in Madrid (plus memes!)

🤑 The Tapa offers paid subscriptions, and we’d be deeply thrilled if you purchased one to help build this enterprise we’ve had so much fun creating. And a big THANK YOU to those who already support us!

🇪🇸 If you haven’t subscribed yet, hit that button below so you have some fresh ideas in your inbox every Friday about where to go and what to do.

Subscribe now

🫶 And if you have, please share this with your friends!

Share

Here Are 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend

It’s Friday again!

And yes, yesterday was a long day for news, which pushed us to publish really late. (You should be aware that a lot of parliamentary drama takes place on Thursdays, and sometimes, we need to wait until the afternoon/evening to send, or Tapa gets old really fast.)

• Case in point: yesterday’s drama with Victor de Aldama and his bonkers statement in court, which we’re sure we’ll be covering next week because this case is only getting started.

• We know, we know. “Hey, no politics on the Friday issue!” you’re probably saying. And you’re right. But you know us, we couldn’t let it slide.

Anyway, don’t miss next week’s Tapa Newsletter. It’s gonna be cray.

Oh, and here are five things for you to do this weekend, courtesy of us.

Enjoy!

1.🎅🏻 The Christmas Markets are back. (Yes, already)

Did you freak out a bit when you saw the Santa emoji in today’s issue? Us too.

2024 has come and gone.

But at least the Christmas markets in Madrid are back! This is one of the most cherished traditions in the city this time of the year as multiple festive markets spring up across the city. These markets are a great opportunity to buy cheap original gifts this holiday season.

• The first is in the Plaza de España and starts tomorrow (yay!). The square becomes home to La Navideña and it features a market and ice-skating rink. Just like the one in the Rockefeller Center! Suck it, NYC. This year’s theme is The Nutcracker, so expect a lot of it everywhere. There’s also Swiss and German food. Maybe even some mulled wine! Go there tomorrow. It’s a classic.

• Then of course you have the Christmas Market in the Plaza Mayor (that’s the big one), which makes its return in Nov. 28. There are 104 stalls there, so you have no excuse when it comes to finding a gift. It’s organized by the Plaza Mayor Traditional Christmas Market Association and, for over a month, it becomes a hub for seasonal shopping, there are truly weird nativity scenes, holiday decorations, and novelty items.

• Then there’s one at Juan Goytisolo Square, next to the Reina Sofía Museum, in which traditional stalls are usually set up, and visitors can enjoy ice skating on the nearby rink. The Isabel II Square also hosts a variety of stands where locals and tourists can pick up Christmas items.

Ho ho ho! Get your presents while you can.

Christmas Market at Plaza de España. Plaza de España, Madrid. Opens Nov. 23. Free admission.

2.⏱️ A monologue: ‘To Move in Time’ (and it’s in English!)

Aren’t you happy when sometimes you get to experience events in English here? Not that there’s anything wrong with practicing your Spanish, of course (in fact, we always encourage it). But there’s nothing wrong with giving your brain a break.

To Move In Time is a monologue written by Tim Etchells for performer and collaborator Tyrone Huggins, in which an unnamed protagonist speculates playfully about what he’d do if he were able to travel backwards and forwards in time.

• From fantasies of changing the present, to obsessions with everyday events in the past, to dreaming up ways to get rich from knowledge of the future, the text is an unfolding compulsive thought process.

• In the end though, far from the science fiction of time travel it is ostensibly working with, To Move In Time concerns itself with questions of value and priority – what matters, what needs to be cared for and what can be changed.

An obsessive stream of consciousness tangled and contradictory, the work combines Etchells’ text with Huggins' powerful performance to walk a line between comic absurdity and melancholia. (And you complain we only recommend reggaeton and street markets!)

Also, your only chance to see this is tonight so get your tickets quickly.

To Move in Time. Centro de Cultura Contemporanea CondeDuque. Conde Duque 11, Madrid. Nov. 22. 8 p.m. Tickets: €18.

3.😂 The Play that Goes Wrong but in Spanish

See? And now we have the opposite. You’ve probably heard of the classic Broadway and West End comedy The Play that Goes Wrong. Well, this is the Spanish version and you shouldn’t miss it.

• Now in its fifth season in Spain, with an adaptation by Zenón Recalde and direction by Sean Turner and David Ottone, the show has captivated over 8 million audience members worldwide. In Spain, it has surpassed 1,000 performances and over 450,000 people have seen it already.

• They play is often described as “a blend of Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes”, and it follows a group of actors attempting to stage Murder at Haversham Manor, a mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.

• But, true to its name, everything in this production that can go wrong does go wrong. Props fall apart, fires break out, actors forget their lines, miss their cues, or are forced to make unconventional entrances when doors refuse to open. It’s all pretty hilarious.

Worth the money if you’re looking to escape the sorry state of the world.

La función que sale mal. Teatro Amaya. Paseo del General Martínez Campos 9, Madrid. Check website for schedule. Tickets: €22.

4.🕯️ Some Poetry: POETAS del Viernes at La Casa Encendida