All opinions are valid; that is not discussed. I anticipate this observation because I recently heard a point of view that I do not share at all, but I fully respect and defend the right to express it.
Someone claimed that theater should essentially be fun, distraction, so that the spectator is left at the end of each performance with a smile and a good taste in their mouth.
I wish it could be like this… I wish! But since theater is a reflection of our daily lives, it will be impossible for it to always be painted pink. There will be green, yellow, blue, gray moments… and black ones, many black ones.
And yet, even in those darker tones, the theater will be a luminous window, since it allows us to see ourselves from a distance, analyze ourselves, discover ourselves and to that extent react to reality, and face it, live it!, in a different way .
I make this long introduction to highly recommend the work “Ana contra la muerte”, which could seem pessimistic from the title. And if we add a little of the plot, the matter would seem worse. The synopsis of the program explains: Ana’s son has cancer, she cannot afford the treatment, but she cannot let her son die either, what is she willing to do to save him, how far does she plan to go and to what extent? point are we able to understand it?
In the same program, Gabriel Calderón, the author, explains that “Ana contra la muerte is going through a painful and personal experience such as the death of my sister at the age of 35. With that experience and in the midst of this writing, taking care to respect the material in its fictional essence, I was convinced to radically change the essence of my dramaturgy and respect the size and pain that the material itself demanded.” What is the response to this?
Theater is and should be like that. True, born from reality, from the guts, from experience and personal interest and, always valid, from those who make it, from the playwright to the last of the technicians.
Gabriel Calderón is part of the current generation of brilliant Uruguayan playwrights, and whose wonderful texts have reached our country with great force in the last five years. Among them are Sergio Blanco, Fernando Schmidt and Christian Ibarzábal. Excellent authors all and very diverse!
To the solid text we must add the work of a brilliant creative team headed by Cristian Magaloni, who step by step, montage after montage, is establishing himself as an enormous stage director.
Magaloni takes care of every detail, every scene, every dialogue, and gives them the strength that is required. Furthermore, he manages – something not easy – not to repeat himself at all. Each of her staging is unique, worked like filigree. No serial work or “one more”. Congratulations to one of our best directors today.
And to round out the proposal, Magaloni relies on a pool of excellent creatives: Emilio Zurita (set design); María Vergara (lighting); Giselle Sandiel (costumes) and Leo Soqui (sound design, arrangements and original music).
All this at the service of four gems of actresses: Mariana Giménez, Nohemí Espinosa, Montse Ángeles Peralta and Mariana Gajá. What a job from each of them! What dedication and what effort!, and not only emotional, but even physical, due to the challenge that the scenic layout and the scenography demand of them.
“Ana contra la muerte” is one of those stagings that leaves the audience frozen; but they guide him, invite him, motivate him to think, to not stay with the desire, but to leave the theater and do something more than see. Theater of 100, which should not be missed.
“Ana against death” is presented from Friday to Sunday, only until April 28, in La Gruta, of the Hellenic Cultural Center.