La íntima del presidente

Hay un aspecto de la crítica teatral del cual me cuido y es resaltar como aspecto deficiente lo que uno como crítico desearía que estuviera en la obra o cómo uno lo haría diferente. La crítica debe partir de la obra y sustentarse en lo que ella ha puesto en escena. “La íntima del presidente” es una obra dramática o melodramática (como el mismo autor la califica) que tiene un alto porcentaje de sucesos y personajes históricos que procuran darle un marco referencial al drama de una mujer y sus anhelos. El dramaturgo (Javier Vidal) se esmera en narrar referencialmente hechos históricos nacionales e internacionales para darle así más importancia a ellos que al drama de Estrella, quien es el personaje al cual se refiere el título.

Dos narraciones paralelas describen la estructura de la obra, la vida política del presidente Medina y el drama humano de su amante Estrella. No tanto por el título, como por el planteamiento de la obra, el espectador cae en la trampa de pensar que la obra trata sobre el drama humano de Estrella y no de los accidentes de un presidente frustrado por las decisiones que tomó en su periodo presidencial. Son muy pocas las referencias al drama interno del presidente, solo una, su frustración por no llenar sus propias expectativas. Sin embargo, mucho mejor construido está el personaje de Estrella porque parte de un drama interno para exteriorizarlo en sus deseos y dificultades para ser la primera dama de la república. El personaje del presidente lleva el rol principal, dejando de lado a quien prometía ser la protagonista de la historia, no solo por su atractivo, sino porque así lo hizo ver el dramaturgo al inicio de la obra. El personaje de Uslar, es una pared de rebote para que el presidente pudiera exteriorizar las dificultades de su gestión. En sí, carece de drama, que no sea por una frase que refleja su parecer sobre el exilio. Lo que no se puede negar, es la docta investigación que sirvió de base para el drama histórico, aunque la misma hiciera que el argumento quedara en un ámbito localista. Faltó lo que Shakespeare hizo en sus dramas históricos, nunca perder la humanidad de los personajes.

A nivel de actuación, destaca primeramente el trabajo de Jan Vidal Restifo que, a partir de la imitación extraordinaria de la voz de la persona referida, alcanzó una expresión corporal acorde con el personaje interpretado. Gonzalo Velutini, siempre ilustrado en los menesteres del comportamiento distinguido, hace un presidente templado, del que podría decirse que cohíbe la manifestación de sus emociones debido al rol que interpreta. Alguno que otro grito lo sacan de su obstinado rol de líder y justamente pasa cuando pierde el control con “La íntima”, que es la piedrita en el zapato que lo perturba, porque ni sus hijos provocan emociones en él. Confieso mi ignorancia respecto a la personalidad de Medina Angarita, pero confiando en la investigación del dramaturgo, Velutini alcanza los niveles de exigencia del personaje. Y he dejado de último a Julie Restifo, como se deja de último a la actriz más importante a la hora de recibir los aplausos, porque sencillamente sobre sus hombros llevó el personaje más encantador y consistente de la obra. Ella interpretó un personaje complejo que se debatía entre los principios de una mujer burguesa y el desaforado deseo de ser primera dama. Va desde la súplica hasta la venganza y eso lo siente el espectador, no solo porque lo dicen los diálogos, sino que lo expresa la actriz con su talento y buen decir de cada frase. La magia del teatro, una vez más, le concede la gracia de verse perfecta para el personaje porque lo hace humano y verosímil.

Evidentemente hay otros aspectos que conforman un espectáculo como este, pero destaco lo que se tiene que destacar. Disfruto del talento expuesto sobre las tablas y refiero con seriedad la invitación a ver la obra.

Martin Hahn

Julio 2018

Historical approach on Javier Vidal's theater

“We need a type of theater which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself”

Bertolt Brecht 

Contrary on what you may think, epic theater (also called dialectic theater) is far away from the classic greek tragedies or the Homer’s myth. This type of theater is referred to the one Bertolt Brecht created on the XX century. A play that pretends to talk about the past (a historical event), but the audience will relate with the present. He is also the creator of the distant effect, where a character stop the action of the play deliberately to create a moment of reflexion, occasionally serving as first person narrator. Some other Brecht’s method are juxtaposition scenes, where two or more actions happens simultaneously on different places or times, and a circle narrative where the action starts and finishes on the same spot. There is no discussion that Javier Vidal’s dramaturgy has a complete saga of epic theater, from Diógenes y las camisas voladoras (2011) to his recently new play, La íntima del presidente (2018) 

Diogenes is a barely known character on venezuela's history. He was going to become the president of Venezuela, unfortunately his mental illness kept him from it. He was the civilist who would change the tradition of military ruling Venezuela. A brilliant man who was able to make a pact with the all living forces in Venezuela for the final transition to democracy. Between scene and scene both his secretary Hugo Orozco and his political adviser Ramón J. Velásquez enounce the scene through Brecht’s distant effect technique. At the end, the audience will feel there is a better country that may be constructed.

Los Compadres (2013) is about Cipriano Castro and Juan Vicente Gómez. The vice-president Gómez wants to betray president Castro, and the best opportunity present itself when Castro in 1908 has to go to Germany due to his illness. Gómez will rule the country until his death in 1936. Even though the author is referring to historical events, the audience will make some connection with the present, either by the sickness of the president, or the succession of the vice-president. The audience, then, will have the feeling that history repeats itself in a loop. 

   La Catira del General starts with Cela, a spanish writer, presenting itself and narrating the action. Cela has come to Venezuela to write a novel (La Catira) in order to make propagandistic piece for Pérez Jimenez administration. He is an artist that has compromised his art for some money. Same happens with Vallenilla Lanz, his minister of justice, an intellectual supporting a dictatorship who compromise his intelligence. Another important character in this play is Paco, who represents all the european migration from those days, specially the spanish one. At the end the author adds a new scene post-climax, where Pérez Jimenez rejects to do a clean election process, and his minister consciousness refuses to participate in such scam abandoning his position as a minister and changing his mind from a politically correct man to a correct political, adding a new theme to the play “fraudulent elections”. Again, the feeling that history repeats in a loop will be present on the audience.

His most recent play is “La íntima del presidente”. This play is about religious and political tolerance. Medina Angarita, future president of Venezuela, is a conservative catholic, who is in love with a jewish woman Estrella Serfati. Despite he is a Hitler supporter at the beginning, his love for Estrella will put a first step on him for tolerance. Furthermore, Uslar Pietri’s liberal point of view will make him abandon completely his fascist ideas, for a more democratic one. In his administration he legalizes communist party and A.D. (social-democrat), and prepares the terrain for universal vote, including women and illiterates. Unfortunately the democratic transition he was preparing will be interrupt by a coup d’Etat. At the end Medina thinks “I will have to conclude that in this country, a few cultural and professional differences arise such ambitions that threaten the very basis of the armed forces and the country." The author speak up his mind through Medina’s words to create a reflexive climax. 

Plato said that art copies nature. On the same track of ideas, Shakespeare saw it as a mirror in which human being sees reflected. Brecht on the other hand, used to think is a hammer that shapes society. Either way, it is a tool Javier Vidal uses with a purpose to entertain, to think, to leave a mark on our society. If I had to enclose Javier Vidal’s thesis throughout his plays in one sentence it would be “I want a more civilized society.” Or marking his words “My plays are for civilizing the country against the barbaric govern that pretends to rule us from Miraflores”. 
 

Thanos a cold calculus

Strange as it may seem, the new Avengers movie is about a complex topic.  A cruel Titan named Thanos, wants to rule the world with an iron fist. His ideology is nihilism. If he kills half of the Universe, the small resources existing in his world will be enough to end poverty and misery, and all the ills in the universe will cease. How may he achieve such a great power? Stealing the six infinity stones, that controls time, space, mind, soul, power and reality. It is, of course, up to the Avengers to stop him. 

It is a calculus based on William F. Lloyd’s theory Tragedy of the commons. All the same, human nature is not able to think consciously, because is individualist and selfish, therefore someone has to oblige them by force. Basically, Thanos wants to fix overpopulation, pollution, non-renewable energy, carbon emissions problems. A chance to have a morning after for the generations to come, to grow in a healthy world, where the finite resources are no longer a problem. A society with a few differences on equality scales. A better distribution in the Universe. This is why at the end of the movie, Thanos just sits to see the sunrise: A new dawn has arrived!

Even so, this brings others problems, such as the loss of liberty, the main reason why the Avengers are fighting him. If Thanos wants to control the Universe, he will have no opposition to fight against him, so he will do whatever he feels right, in other words the Universe will become a totalitarian nightmare. “Totalitarianism is a political concept where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible”. The scene where he has to sacrifice his daughter Gamora, his most beloved being, in order to achieve the soul stone is very significant. It is the best metaphor of what happens in a totalitarian state, that is willing to sacrifice its own children if  necessary. 


Most of the totalitarian dictatorships propaganda centers on having a more equal society, for a new morning in a better world, but, what is the actual cost? Thanos at the end of the movie says that a lot has been lost, even for him. He moans the loss of his daughter, but he has no regrets on what has happened. This was his plan. He is convinced of his ideas: killing half population will make the Universe stronger and healthier. 

Convinced of this was Stalin, Hitler and others dictators of such nature. Sad to say this is not an issue of the past. Dictators of this nature keep appearing, specially in Africa and Middle East. Should we see ourselves, and it is clear here also. The Cuban and Venezuelan dictatorships are clearly the Thanos. Is Cuba going to sacrifice Venezuela in order to save itself, just as Thanos did with Gamora? Where are the Avengers in this story? The United States?, ONU?, European Community? O.A.S? Are they tied up as the Avengers in the movie? To be continued...

From celluloid to digital

"The beauty of the invention resides in the novelty and ingenuity of the apparatus. When these apparatuses are made available to the public, everybody will be able to photograph those who are dear to them, (...) then, death will no longer be absolute"

Louise Lumiere

 Talking about a movie camera is talking about the history of narrative film as well. The evolution of film history is attached to the technology human mind is able to produce. From Lumiére's cinematographer to digital cameras, the way film makers conceive a movie and the demands of the audience has changed a lot. Not only is it a matter of generations, but it is how technology has changed our way of thinking. What we may really be sure about something though: since its invention, human mind has turned visual.

The Lumiere brothers were the pioneers of the film industry. For the construction of their cinematographer, they used the principles of old children's toys, such as the Thaumatrope, the Phenakistocope, the Zoetrope, and the magic lantern. The cinematograph's first experiment was to record a train arraving to the station. For Lumiere brothers, it was just a scientific experiment, but what they did not realize is that they put the first step into the film industry.

Georges Méliès bought the cinematographer (from The Lumiéres) and did some significant innovations like the fade-in, the fade out, and the stop motion photography. He was an illusionist, so he liked to play a lot with special effects. His most famous movie is A trip to the moon (1902), inspired by Jules Verne's novel From the Earth to the moon. The film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of lunar inhabitants, and return to Earth with a captive lunar inhabitant.

After the invention of the cinema itself, the most important event in film history was the introduction of sound. Thomas Edison was the first to synchronize sound and image at the same time. Using the principles of two of his greatest inventions, the Cinephonograph and the Kinetophone, he created the Kinetograph achieving a step forward in the film industry. Adapting to new conditions was not easy. Not only because most actors did not speak English, but because the industry was changing so fast. Charlie Chaplin, for example, was able to adapt easily to these changes. One of his most famous pictures is "The great dictator", a parody of Hitler and the Nazi regime, combining his silent movie style in a sound movie. At the end, the silent tramp speaks up in a memorable speech in which he warns us about the dangers of human progress at the cost of its own extinction.

Color was the next obvious step. The Cinemascope cameras had lenses that aloud full color movies. Toll of the sea was the first movie shot in technicolor's two-strip, two color subtractive process, but the one that knocked it out of the park was the film Gone with the wind. This was the first movie that won the Oscar (1939) for the newly created category of Color Cinematography. In 1940, Walt Disney flew higher with Fantasia, using three color Technicolor, and multiple audio channels using a stereophonic sound.

A lot has changed since "The arrival of the train". Cinema has turned digital! Not only is 3D now a common thing, but the HD and 4K cameras are essential for movie making. Personally I think cinema today is so obsessed concentrating on technology that some pictures do not have a good directing or script. Special effects today distracted us so much, we forget we are watching a bad movie.    

Drama genres

"Let the tragic and comic be mixed (…) will make one part serious, 

another ridiculous, for this variety is very delightful. 

Nature gives us a good example for she attains beauty 

through such variety”

Lope de Vega

Talking about the definition of drama is not an easy task. Have you ever seen Game of Thrones and thought “this is such a great drama!”? Or a Martin Hahn’s soap opera and have exclaimed “Hahn’s dramas are so original!” Talking about Star Wars and saying “I love the drama involved”. The real question here “Is drama a specific kind of genre?”, the short answer is no. Drama comes from latin Dramae, which means action, and it is the foundation of theater plays and movies. Action is what makes the plot move. This means that drama may be in any type of genre that may go from tragedy to science fiction.

           

Tragedy was the first drama genre written in the history of western society. Tragedy according to Aristotle is “imitation of a high and perfect action, of a certain extension, with a language diversely decorated in each part, by means of action and not of narration, which leads, through compassion and fear, to the purification of these passions". Tragedy happens on the soaring of the royal families and takes place in a palace. The protagonist is usually a king (sometimes a fallen god like Prometheus) with a terrible fate. The prophecy says that Oedipus, king of Thebes, will kill his father and sleep with his mother. His parents, trying to escape the prophecy, give him away when he is just a baby, but the gods will always find the hero and fulfill his destiny, no matter what it is done to avoid it.

Comedy according to Aristotle is the “imitation of the most vulgar and defective people, in their ugliness and laughable form of being. What is laughable and does not cause pain nor is fatal is human error and clumsiness. Aristophanes was the most important comedian from Ancient Greece. He was born after the Athenian golden age, so his comedies are critical of the decadent democracy. His plays are full of puns, earthy jokes and slapstick comedy. He also likes to poke fun at the Greek tragedies, especially the ones from Euripides. In the clouds, Aristophanes uses the technic reductio ab ridiculum (appeal to ridicule) by misrepresenting Socrates’ ideas and exaggerating them to mock him.

           

The Roman Empire comedians copied the Greek comedies, improving them, however, by removing chorus and adding musical accompaniment as a simultaneous supplement to the plays’ dialogue. The action of all scenes typically take place on the streets outside the dwelling of the main characters, and plot complications are often a result of eavesdropping by a minor character. The renassaince did not escape from Rome’s influence. Plautus’s comedy The pot of gold (Aulularia) serves of reference for Moliére’s farce The Miser (L’Avare) and Shakespeare’s comedy Merchant of Venice. In these plays, greedy men oblige their children to live within their means even though they are wealthy men.

           

One of the genres that cinema has given to dramaturgy is science fiction. Star Wars has been one of the greatest franchise in the history of Hollywood. George Lucas creates a whole new universe in space, taking elements from epic drama, melodrama, and tragedy. Luke Skywalker makes “the journey of the hero”, something that has been told in literature since Homer’s Odyssey. From farmer to hero, Skywalker has to go through many trials to become the chosen one who saves the galaxy. His fate is to fight and defeat his father Lord Vader, commander in chief of the clone army and prime minister of the evil empire. Even though Luke tries to escape his destiny by convincing his father to turn to the light side instead of killing him, tragic heroes cannot escape fate. 

           

As you may see, all stories have already been told since the Greeks, and what is the secret of writers? The answer to this question is how. The “what” never changes. There is some discussion on how many types of stories exist. Some theorists say six, some say nine, and some others thirty-six, but the possibility of how to write the same story in different ways is endless. You think Shakespeare was very original writing Romeo and Juliet? Before him Fernando de Rojas, a medieval Spanish dramatist, wrote “The tragicomedy of Callixtus and Melibea”, and before him in the Roman Empire, Ovid wrote “Pyramus and Thisbe”.  The genres have evolved a lot and that is why it is so difficult to define what is drama and what is not, it is almost an impossible job.   

Polvo.

 La Caja de Fósforos ha comenzado el año con la obra del italiano Saverio La Ruina “Polvo”, una intensa obra sobre la violencia doméstica, protagonizada por Elvis Chaveinte y Rossana Hernández.

La obra bellamente dirigida por Diana Volpe, tiene un ritmo enérgico y electrizante en la cual una tóxica relación va escalando en una violencia que va desde el plano psicológico hasta el físico. La dirección de arte es de tipo realista y al mismo tiempo no deja de ser minimalista.

La obra usa el recurso de la danza contemporánea para enfatizar las acciones dramáticas entre escena y escena. La música original de Juan Pablo García te produce un escalofrío constante que te transporta a los sentimientos más oscuros de los personajes.

Cabe destacar que el dramaturgo es un excelente dialoguista y no hay palabra en el drama que no esté en su justo puesto. Quizás por el hecho de que la pareja lo sea también en la vida real que la química entre ambos sea potente y lo más importante verosímil. 

Micro-teatro 12 Edición

El Titanic se hunde y los violinistas insisten en seguir tocando; esa es la metáfora del país que nos ha tocado vivir a los artistas venezolanos. El Urban Cuplé ha cerrado sus puertas como teatro y se ha dedicado al micro-teatro exclusivamente. El comentario más escuchado “los espacios se reducen”. Y efectivamente cada vez es más difícil conseguir sala, montar una producción, mantener las entradas a un costo accesible y conseguir una entrada masiva del público, y sin embargo seguimos empeñados en continuar tocando.

El teatro breve no es una invención de estos nuevos tiempos; desde mucho antes que a Miguel de Cervantes se le ocurriera escribir sus entremeses, ya existían pequeñas obras que se intercalaban entre actos de las tragedias griegas, entre pantomimas y sátiras. Lo que sí es invención de nuestra contemporaneidad es el empaque en que se presentan; el estilo de varias obras que simultáneamente se presentan por 15 minutos entre una cantidad repetida de funciones por noche.

El Urban Cuplé ya lleva su primera semana de temporada de 30 obras que presentan. En esta semana he visto ya 12. De las que he visto hasta ahora, la que para mí se lleva el primer lugar es Open Mind. Sospecho que la obra se inspira en el video aquel del trio sexual que se filtró por internet. Pero la obra va más allá de eso, en un juego de manipulación mediática hay una reflexión sobre nuestra sociedad y nuestra relación con los medios de comunicación. Las actuaciones de los jóvenes actores Kenia Carpio y Theylor Plaza son excelentes, de igual manera la dirección muy rajatabliana y la dirección de arte muy acorde a la pieza representada.

01 la Comedia Musical, es mi segunda recomendación; un divertimento para todos los amantes de los musicales de Broadway. Una historia sencilla, divertida, y con mucha música. Bien coreografiada, bien cantada y con una producción de altura.

Métete, comedia de situaciones. Dos actores, Dairo Piñeres y Mario Sudano, encarnan arquetipos de personajes que entran y salen en el metro de Caracas. Sorprendente la rapidez de ambos para cambiarse y en 15 minutos hacer por lo menos 6 personajes cada uno. Una obra que me ha sacado 15 minutos de grandes carcajadas.

Pran, pran, pran, es un musical dentro de un penal venezolano. Esta obra tiene una composición musical original que te pone los pelos de punta y un ensamble vocal destacado, y especialmente Gonzalo Guerrero es quien se lleva mis mayores aplausos, en voz e interpretación.

Cocinando con Dorangel, parodia de los programas de cocina con el caníbal de San Cristobal. El texto no es gran cosa, pero la emulación de Armando Álvarez vale la pena.

Bipolar, una obra bastante peculiar sobre un paciente bipolar en un sanatorio con alucinaciones y problemas de identidad sexual. La energía de Juan Carlos Gardie abruma, lo mejor de la obra.

Muertos de amor, José Luis Useche regresa al bate una vez más. Una pareja que después de muerta siguen juntos en un tormentoso matrimonio. Los diálogos son ágiles e inteligentes, la producción tiene un sentido de espectacularidad muy bien pensada, entre los vestuarios, la escenografía, las luces y el maquillaje y la dirección es precisa y concisa.