Saturday, September 12, 2009

Theater in Montevideo

Montevideo has a strong theater community. This past month I have gone to two performances. One at the beautiful Teatro Solis (pictured below) and one at the Anglo Centro Cultural. One a commentary on torture, and the other a light-hearted comedy.


At Teatro Solis we saw Resilencia, a one man performance expressing the what it was like to be tortured as a political prisoner during the military dictatorship from 1973-85. The linked article states that the director understands "el cuerpo es la Ășnica pertenencia que le queda a un individuo para mantener su dignidad" (the body is the only possession that an individual has left to keep his/her dignity). The show was dark, somber, and visually thought-provoking. The use of light, really only a light bulb on a rope, was surprisingly brillant.

The other show we went to see at the Anglo was Cada Vez Me Gusta Mas. It was a fun play with several up-beat songs interspersed between antecdotes about the lives of the two main characters. It was full of references to Uruguayan culture and life in Montevideo. At one point during the show the actor stopped the show and yelled at Christie and me for talking. I am not kidding. Somebody, cough, not me, wanted to sit in the front row, but when the actor caught us whispering he looked at us, asked for the lights to be turned on, asked us if we go to a "special school" and then told us to shut up. How mortifying. My face has never been more red in my life. I wanted to melt into the floor. (Just for the record it WAS a comedy and other members of the audience were picked on too. Maybe we were just a part of the act? I hope.)

2 comments:

  1. hahaha, many years ago i pass for the same experience, tell me the name of the actor: was Valenski?

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  2. Actually, yes, that was his name. He was really funny.

    The same thing happened to you? --That makes me feel a lot better!

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