Mexico City's Spring 2005 Theatre Season

FALL2005 163 Mexico City’s Spring 2005 Theatre Season TimothyG.Compton Mexico City’s theatre world continues to magically renew itself. Somehow, despite dire concerns about lack of funding for the arts under the Vicente Fox administration, predated by concerns about lack of funding for the arts under the Ernesto Zedillo administration, the number of plays produced in Mexico City continues similar to prior years and the best plays seem as original and relevant and aesthetically pleasing as ever. In one concrete note of progress, this season saw the opening of a theatre space that promises to be an important one. On March 14, UNAM’s Centro Universitario del Teatro officially opened a new building which virtually doubles the school’s size in square footage and provides an excellent, complementary experimental black box theatre space to its existing Foro with its traditional Elizabethan stage. Several of this season’s finest plays featured settings outside of Mexico. ¿Dónde estaré esta noche?, written by Claudio Valdés Kuri and Maricarmen Gutiérrez and directed by Valdés Kuri, was set in France and revisited the story of Joan of Arc. The set, designed by Valdés Kuri and Igor Lozada, was nearly non-existent yet spectacular at the same time. Performed at the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón theatre, the audience bypassed the usual seating and sat on two facing sets of risers on the stage, as if it were a sporting event. Two details made the set spectacular. First, in a coronation scene, large black cloths behind spectators on each side dropped away, revealing stunning “stained glass windows” which transported spectators instantly into a Gothic cathedral. Second, in a battle scene, the space between the spectators was transformed into water through smoke and blue lights, and the French “traversed the river” by a pair of “bridges” – tall ladders cleverly secured to the risers within inches of spectators on one side of the “river” and dropped violently across the divide to the other side. (For technical specifications, see the company website: www.ciertoshabitantes.com.) Enormous Swiss horns 164 LATINAMERICAN THEATRE REVIEW on the French side and bagpipes on the British side sounded the battle, and smoke combined with red and yellow lights in effective patterns. The ladders also served as towers up which characters scurried to gain better views. In the middle of this chaos Juana rallied the troops by word and by magnificently singing old Negro spirituals. It was by far the most riveting scene of battle I have ever seen. Interaction with audience members was magical, and guaranteed that each performance would be unique. First of all, most of the actors were planted among the audience members at the beginningoftheshow,anddidnot reveal themselves as actors until after a little play within the play, when one of them answered his cell phone and another scolded him angrily about it. One by one, actors in the audience surprisingly took to the stage, and then they cajoled authentic audience members onto the stage in three different scenes. In one such scene, selected authentic audience members were conscripted along with actual actors into the army on the stage. Their superior then started to insult each one military boot camp style, obviously impromptu, for example calling one bushy-haired spectator “Cabeza de Brócoli.” Juana then took over with a completely different approach, sweetly talking to and encouraging each one. Many of the actors sang in a variety of vocal styles, and always beautifully. The acting of all the cast was uniformly great, but the performance of María Teresa Dal Pero in the role of Juana was transcendental. She filled the theatre with goodness and faith and tenderness. Her vocal range was astonishing and the anguish she projected prior to her death seemed almost tangible. Although the situation belonged to Medieval France, occasional references to current events suggested that this play had an eye or the present, calling all to live¿Dónde estaré esta noche? Foto: José Jorge Carreón FALL2005 165 authentically and with principles. This play once again validates de positive international reputation Valdés Kuri and his group have established. For at least the third time, Luis de Tavira...