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”.