I have practiced for a few years the theater criticism. I have suffered the same that happened to my teacher Rine Leal. The author of ¨ The Dark Jungle¨ confessed that sometimes he had envied the anonymous spectator who when getting bored due to a bad play, he just get up and leaves the theatre.
I do not want to use this column to make reviews on shows. I have decided to speak on disturbing, lively and joyful topics. Now I have found a staging that has that self-assurance, that popular grace, that virtue of leaving you thinking and enjoying at the same time. I’m talking about the premiere in the Madrid theatrical season of ¨ Celos y agravios¨, directed by Liuba Cid and which gets to the stage thanks to Arte Producciones Artisticas Company in collaboration with its Havana counterpart Mephisto Teatro.
Last Wednesday night the Figaro Theatre – on the way to the center of Madrid from the Plaza Tirso de Molina, in the charming neighborhood of Lavapies, was filled and there was an energy exchange, a complicity between the show and its receptors, which is very stimulating in the theater billboard of any place in the world.
Celos y agravios shortens the title and aptly prunes the original classical-minor when compared with Lope or Calderon- by Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla. It m aintains the exemplary structure of a comedy of intrigue and has a first-rate cast, which (“as if they were joking”) gives evidence of fluency and coherence when saying, assuming or giving body and true to their lines.
If in ¨ Fuenteovejuna¨-former hit of the same director and company-was used the central argument of Lope de Vega to make way to a party of naturalness and effective scenic game in the Cuban way, in this other play there is a growing interest in the balance of intercultural dialogue.
Spanish public must see as very Cuban the way of assuming the staging. This play presents our accent, an overflowing sensuality and even a clear homage to the tradition of Cuban Bufo Theatre. However, for those who saw it in Havana , where it dazzled a couple of years ago- or even for a short-time-Cuban living in Madrid, the staging is also somewhat Spanish. In the words of its interpreters is the culture of origin which is still fervently cultivated along with certain essences of Spanish language.
This is a lovely show. The costume, by Tony Diaz, is beautiful and functional at the same time. Liuba Cid makes the dynamic and vehemence of the many in and outs of the characters to be solved with painstaking professionalism and even with some compositions of strong beauty.
Regarding the performances, I would like to repeat that phrase from the Marti theater critic and affirm that “all actors excelled.” With no space to dwell on the work of each performer, I make a distinction to the growth in the career I appreciate in Vladimir Cruz. The co-star of the classic movie ¨Fresa y Chocolate¨ combines words and actions very well; he knows how to get excited without forgetting that the final result is the smile. Claudia Lopez accompanies him with grace and great energy.
Now, if this show becomes a pleasure for senses, a spur to the intelligence and a waste of pace is mainly thanks to the performance of Justo Salas and Dayana Contreras. Salas
makes the most of the awesome training that fits into his low height and the virtuosity of his projection to take most of the time the reins of the theatrical game. While Dayana manages to be funny without fanfare, she is a Caribbean with no folklorism, is naughty without rudeness.
Celos y agravios will be displayed in the coming weeks at Figaro Theatre. I recommend Spanish viewers to attend it, especially young people who will see that theater in verses is not a job of classes, but passionate and fun party. And Cubans who live or walk around Madrid are more than invited to this evocation of the pace of Marianao, our neighborhood in Havana, or to the praise of the hubbub at Enramadas S treet in Santiago de Cuba. The play has much of Cuban flavor, but it also retains the best of the drama tradition in Spanish language. We also come from there.
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