Theater, Classic and Museums.
Hello friends.
Happy new year!
A week ago I came back from my summer visit to Santiago. I always go there at the beginning of January so I can attend to Santiago a Mil, a theater festival with plays from all over the world.
This year, in comparison with other years, I assisted to only two plays, but those two were very good.
First, Killbeth. A South Korean version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Now, this was a delicate issue for me. Macbeth is my favorite play from Shakespeare, so I was curious of what they would do, and also scared. But I realized that Korean plays are not as predictable as Korean doramas. The play was amazing. The acting, the passion of the actors, they had just so much energy! And the company was amazing. At the beginning they warning us that they talk super-fast and maybe it will be hard for us to read the subtitles, but we shouldn’t freak out, and they were kind enough to put words in Spanish, some of them said an entire line in Spanish. That says a lot from a company.
In terms of the adaptation, I wasn’t disappointed. There were some changes, first, the name obviously. Instead of three witches, there was a very funny old lady and a representation of Buda, and Lady Macbeth was a men dress as a woman. First I got mad, because Lady Macbeth is my favorite character, I love that woman. And watch her being play by a man with a mustache draw under his mouth and acting like a very bad travesty was shocking at the beginning. But the man was so GOOD! And some iconic scenes as the murder scene and when Lady Macbeth goes nuts, were so well portrait by him. So I forgave them, and I ended up loving this transvestite lady Macbeth.
By the end of the play I was crying, and that’s what’s important.
See the one in red? That's Lady Macbeth.
The second play was Ohne titel Nr.1. A German play that had one big detail. They didn’t talk. There were no dialogs, just sounds, music, sound effects, and amazing acting. This play although, divided the public in two groups. The ones that got it, and the ones that didn’t get a thing and felt very insulted by it because it was just stupid. I was part of the first group.
I just got it. And it was such a clear representation of us. People who follow tendencies with no originality, who get scared easily by difference, who tried to hide things acting ignorant, a society that sits in the couch and just watch how things happen. All of us moving at the sound of someone else’s rhythm.
And it wasn’t just that. The music and sound effects were all live, with a band of three people playing drums, piano and some other wired instruments. Costume design out of this world, simple but very catching, and with actors that were rather super humans, with good voices, great facial expressions and remarkable resistance.
It also made me realize how much we relay in lenguage. Don't mather what idiom. But once there are no dialogs, is so hard to not feel lost here and there.
Ohne Titel Nr.1 was a deep play disguised as a comedy, as kids work.
(All pictures belong to Santiago a Mil)
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In the middle I went to watch the symphonic. Germany again. Carmina Burana.
Holly fuck!
It was the first time I hear it live, and man! Is a whole new thing. Every single hair in my body stood up, and that's a lot to say, cause I'm latinamerican, I have a LOT of hair.
This was the ony picture I could take before it started. One thing that I loved is that thre was this only man in the chorus who wasn't holding the file with the lyrics. What a bad ass, he knew them by memory. Amazing.
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Lastly, I went to the Museum of Contemporary arts to see Marcel Duchamp's "Don't Forget". A retrospective like no other.
It was so intimate. Instead of see (and feel) the piece itself, I got to see how he created it, I got to understand it, to see it from scratch.
I also could understand Duchamp's development as an artist. From day 1 to his last day on earth. His friendship with Dali, his days in Cadaques, his wife, his way of thinking, his manifestos, what Dada meant to him, what art meant to him, what being an artist meant to him.
I feel so bless to have the chance of watch such thing in my country and paying almost nothing.
I felt honored. As If I was a close friend going through his belongings.
No pictures, for obvious reasons, but the memories will no fade.
That's all for now. Sorry if I sounded too snob or whatever. I just love art so much.