Drunk Brit tourists subject of new hit play

A play that lampoons the stereotypical British tourist, with lashings of drunken and boorish behaviour, has become a hit in the Spanish city of Barcelona – where residents often play victim to such visitors.

British people were the second biggest group to visit Catalonia last year

Guiris Go Home, “Guiris” being the Spanish slang for tourists, sold out four nights in its opening week, and is planning more shows in the summer and a run in the Spanish capital of Madrid.

According to The Times, the play is based on a group of Tourists who visit the theatre and begin to talk loudly on their mobile phones. They also shout “boring” during a musical performance about Antoni Gaudí, the famous Spanish architect and the man behind Barcelona’s most influential landmark La Saprada Familia.

Playwright Marc Caella said that the huge response to his play is indicative of the anger felt by locals who have to endure drunken tourists every holiday season, thanks to the rise of low-cost flights and the popularity of Barcelona as a destination after the 1992 Olympics.

He told The Times, “The idea of the play was to show through humour how people feel, but for the audience it was also a way to let out that anger”.

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Barcelona last August to protest against the behaviour of tourists hosting drunken parties on the city’s seafront. Britons were the second biggest group to visit Catalonia, the Spanish region of which Barcelona is the capital, last year – second only to Spain’s French neighbours.