{"id":264,"date":"2016-04-04T17:50:05","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T17:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/?p=264"},"modified":"2023-03-22T21:03:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T21:03:35","slug":"la-bolivie-theatrale-entre-table-et-plateau-bolivian-origins-on-the-table-and-on-the-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/la-bolivie-theatrale-entre-table-et-plateau-bolivian-origins-on-the-table-and-on-the-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"La Bolivie th\u00e9\u00e2trale entre table et plateau Bolivian origins on the table and on the stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jean-Pierre Han<\/strong>*<\/a> et \/and Matti Linnavuori<\/strong>**<\/a><\/p>\n

\"1197068675\" \"Livanuori\"<\/p>\n

IX festival international du th\u00e9\u00e2tre \u00e0 Santa Cruz de la Sierra en Bolivie, 18-28 avril 2013.<\/p>\n

9th<\/sup> international theatre festival Memoria in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, April 18 to 28, 2013.<\/p>\n

Matti:<\/b> I am having lunch in the courtyard of the Contemporary Art Museum of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia. The walls of the museum allow a light breeze into the green courtyard, which makes the April sun not quite so scorching. In the mornings, the same plastic chairs serve as an auditorium for open-air children\u2019s performances. At every table there are not only critics and administrators but also theatre makers from Bolivia and from other South American countries in lively conversation.<\/p>\n

The sharing of a meal takes place every day of the festival Memoria, the ninth of its kind. In this atmosphere, it is only natural for critics to share pleasantries and thoughts with star performers, the like of whom I would not dare approach anywhere else. Santa Cruz establishes for its every participant a sense of belonging to a theatre community, where no one is against something, but everyone understands that theatre is vital.<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre :<\/b> Cher Matti, pour autant que je comprenne l\u2019anglais \u2013 ton d\u00e9licieux anglais \u2013, un peu plus quand m\u00eame que l\u2019espagnol que je ne connais pas du tout, j\u2019ai \u00e9t\u00e9 ravi de voir que tu commen\u00e7ais ton intervention en parlant des repas que nous prenions tous ensemble (nous autres critiques, avec les artistes, les amis d\u2019artistes, etc.) dans la cour de l\u2019\u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts. Cela \u00e0 deux pas des bureaux du festival et d\u2019une boutique de produits locaux (v\u00eatements, souvenirs, livres et CD\u2026). Cet \u00ab \u00e0-c\u00f4t\u00e9 \u00bb qui, en r\u00e9alit\u00e9, est le centre vital du festival, est embl\u00e9matique \u00e0 mes yeux de l\u2019esprit m\u00eame de la manifestation. Il lui conf\u00e8re un caract\u00e8re \u00e9minemment populaire (et pour une fois, je pense que ce mot n\u2019est pas galvaud\u00e9). J\u2019aime bien ces \u00e0-c\u00f4t\u00e9s qui r\u00e9v\u00e8lent toujours \u00e0 mes yeux la v\u00e9ritable nature des manifestations. Et je ne connais qu\u2019un autre festival o\u00f9 existe un tel lieu authentique, c\u2019est le festival d\u2019Almada au Portugal qui vient de perdre son cr\u00e9ateur et animateur, Joaquim Benite. J\u2019en profite pour saluer ici sa m\u00e9moire.<\/p>\n

Matti:<\/b> On the menu there are healthy homemade meals rather than foreign classics, and the same goes for the festival program, which is dominated by new, made-to-purpose texts. By the end of my stay, I have picked up enough Spanish to follow the plot of a comedy of manners Tu nombre en palo escrito<\/i> (\u201cTo write your name on a stick\u201d) which runs without surtitles. Otherwise, I would have to rip my pleasure from the costumes; Bolivia is a country with many different climates, and the heavy overcoats of some period pieces may be appropriate when performing in the plateaus, but in the venues of Santa Cruz with their occasionally failing air-conditioning the coats look terribly uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

\"Colonialism
Colonialism arrives in Bolivia with grand gestures in “El naufragio de Nuflo de Chavez.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jean-Pierre <\/b>: Il y a l\u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9vidence d\u2019une authentique simplicit\u00e9. Cette simplicit\u00e9, je l\u2019ai v\u00e9cue tout au long de l\u2019\u00e9laboration de notre petit colloque que nous avons organis\u00e9, Marcos Malavia et moi-m\u00eame depuis Paris, Marcos se faisant bien s\u00fbr l\u2019interm\u00e9diaire aupr\u00e8s de l\u2019APAC (Asociaci\u00f3n Pro Arte y Cultura). Jamais, pour moi, les choses n\u2019ont \u00e9t\u00e9 r\u00e9alis\u00e9es avec autant de simplicit\u00e9, sans probl\u00e8me aucun (un miracle !), dans une sorte d\u2019\u00e9vidence. Nous nous sommes donc retrouv\u00e9s, nous cinq critiques, toi venu de Finlande, Jean Couturier, un Fran\u00e7ais, Juan Antonio Hormig\u00f3n, l\u2019Espagnol qui a profit\u00e9 de l\u2019occasion pour pratiquer jusqu\u2019\u00e0 plus soif sa langue maternelle, et enfin cette femme \u00e9tonnante venue de la Barbade (vous connaissez ? C\u2019est dans les Cara\u00efbes, para\u00eet-il\u2026), Icil Phillips. Nous cinq, avec des confr\u00e8res de Bolivie et de Cuba, sommes donc intervenus sur la question de la critique, tr\u00e8s exactement sur \u00ab le r\u00f4le de la critique dans la transmission de la cr\u00e9ation th\u00e9\u00e2trale \u00bb. Un colloque et un sujet qui montrent la volont\u00e9 d\u2019ouverture des organisateurs du festival, une ouverture tous azimut.<\/p>\n

Matti:<\/b> First thing on my return home I intend to tackle Teatre Ando<\/i>, a journal published by APAC. Teatre Ando<\/i> gives detailed reportage about how and why certain of the festival performances were created, but it turns out to be impossible to read without a proper knowledge of Spanish.<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre :<\/b> Concernant la programmation du festival, je m\u2019aper\u00e7ois que nous n\u2019avons pratiquement pas vu les m\u00eames spectacles ! Ce qui prouve sa richesse. Le premier constat que je puis faire c\u2019est l\u2019enthousiasme du public, relativement jeune, qui remplissait toujours les salles, au point d\u2019ailleurs que nous avons rat\u00e9 quelques r\u00e9alisations, faute de trouver de la place ! L\u2019autre constat c\u2019est qu\u2019il y avait beaucoup de productions (de th\u00e9\u00e2tre et de danse) relativement br\u00e8ves (quel bonheur !) avec un seul ou deux artistes, question de budget bien s\u00fbr. Mais qu\u2019\u00e0 cela ne tienne. Le paradoxe, c\u2019est que le meilleur spectacle que j\u2019ai pu voir est un spectacle\u2026 uruguayen ! Celui de Gabriel Calder\u00f3n, auteur et metteur en sc\u00e8ne faisant partie d\u2019un collectif, et qui est, \u00e0 tr\u00e8s juste titre, \u00e0 un peu plus de trente ans, en train d\u2019acqu\u00e9rir une renomm\u00e9e\u2026 internationale. Avec Ex, que cr\u00e8vent les protagonistes, <\/i>ce fut un \u00e9blouissant feu d\u2019artifice allum\u00e9 par sept com\u00e9diens qui soulev\u00e8rent l\u2019enthousiasme de la salle. R\u00e9f\u00e9rence \u00e9tant faite, comme pour la majorit\u00e9 des spectacles, \u00e0 la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 politique et sociale du pays concern\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\"All
All the parties involved in conquering Bolivia assemble in “El naufragio de Nuflo de Chavez.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matti: <\/b>I can only guess the extent of historical irony in Marcos Malavia\u2019s production El Naufragio de \u00d1uflo de Ch\u00e1vez<\/i> (\u201cCh\u00e1vez\u2019s castaway\u201d), but even now I am hugely entertained by the gallop of various theatrical styles that Malavia\u2019s theatre students splash in. The Spanish conquistador \u00d1uflo de Ch\u00e1vez (1518-1568) founded the city of Santa Cruz, and the performance shows a merry parade of other activities and thoughts involved in the process of colonization. A heart-breaking melodramatic scene can be followed by the crudest kind of comedy which one normally associates with children\u2019s theatre, etc. The text by Jos\u00e9 Sanchis Sinisterra was dramatized by Marcos Malavia. Mr. Malavia (born 1962) received his theatre educated in France. He is the artistic director of the festival and also the director of the only national theatre school (ENT, Escuela Nacional de Teatro) in Bolivia.<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre <\/b>: Nous avons quand m\u00eame vu ensemble le spectacle mis en sc\u00e8ne par Marcos Malavia avec les \u00e9tudiants de son \u00e9cole. Je voudrais mettre l\u2019accent sur deux choses. D\u2019abord la situation \u00e9tonnante de Malavia. Il dirige une compagnie th\u00e9\u00e2trale en France avec laquelle il fait un excellent travail en banlieue parisienne, \u00e0 Bagneux, mais en dehors des projecteurs des medias, de mani\u00e8re discr\u00e8te si je puis dire, alors qu\u2019\u00e0 Santa Cruz, directeur de la seule \u00c9cole de th\u00e9\u00e2tre nationale, il est une personnalit\u00e9 incontournable du monde artistique bolivien. Sa place au c\u0153ur du Festival est d\u2019ailleurs primordiale. J\u2019ajouterai un mot sur l\u2019\u00c9cole qu\u2019il dirige : relativement r\u00e9cente, elle tranche par sa belle architecture au milieu d\u2019un quartier parmi les plus pauvres de la ville. C\u2019est une oasis de calme et de travail qui fait la fiert\u00e9 des habitants du quartier : elle est respect\u00e9e comme telle. C\u2019est dans la magnifique salle de 500 places que nous avons donc pu voir El Naufragio de \u00d1uflo de Ch\u00e1vez\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Camila
Camila Rocha and Diego Aramburo as Juliet and Romeo perform on a table with the spectators sitting around it in three rows.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matti<\/b>: All but one in the selection offered to us were Bolivian texts. Only one classic then, Romeo y Julieta de Aramburo<\/i>, slightly renamed in honor of and by its director Diego Aramburo, who was the designated artist of the festival. Aramburo and his Kiknteatr from the city of Cochabamba are, of course, well-known the world over. Of his overseas productions I mention Macbett<\/i>, Eugene Ionesco\u2019s 1972 adaptation of Shakespeare, which Aramburo directed in Quebec in 2009.<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre :<\/b> J\u2019ai malheureusement rat\u00e9 le Rom\u00e9o et Juliette <\/i>de Aramburo dont tout le monde (toi le premier) a dit le plus grand bien. Je vais me rattraper en lisant des pi\u00e8ces que l\u2019auteur-metteur en sc\u00e8ne que j\u2019ai rencontr\u00e9 dans l\u2019avion qui me ramenait en France a bien voulu me faire parvenir !<\/p>\n

Matti:<\/b> Aramburo\u2019s Romeo and Juliet<\/i> is a thing of exquisite beauty\u2012and cruelty. The two most beautiful and fragile-looking human beings ever, Aramburo himself and Camila Rocha, both dressed in white, sprinkle icing sugar all over each other, eye sockets not spared. They are the only characters left of Shakespeare\u2019s original. Both Romeo and Juliet are casual about their drug addiction. After icing sugar, they immerse themselves in various liquids and substances. In several conversations after the show I heard a complaint that drugs are treated as an ornament, and that the production fails to show the consequences to the characters of their drug use. I don\u2019t share the complaint, because this was the one show which built castles in the air rather than solid socially-realistic arguments. The two actors performed on the table, writhing, standing, lying, taking insecure steps amidst all the dishes, and sometimes simply sitting at each end. There were three rows of spectators sitting around the table very close to the actors.<\/p>\n

\"Camila
Camila Rocha as Juliet in Diego Aramburo’s posh drug version of the Shakespearen classic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think we saw plenty of evidence that contemporary writing in Bolivia has the vitality to tackle today\u2019s problems without needing to resort to the roundabout way of reinterpreting classics. The Bolivian society has the maturity and the courage to receive problem plays directly without the veil of a classic. This, of course, is European superiority talking, i.e. my obsession to perceive Bolivian reality as something of a problem which theatre must set out to solve, so much so that theatre will have little if any energy left for minor concerns such as aesthetics. I understood my biased position thanks to the insight of Nina Jambrina, who is a French PhD student on Latin American playwrights. She criticized the European expectation that Latin American theatre should restrict itself to serious social concerns.<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre<\/b> : Voil\u00e0 un point sur lequel je suis en parfait accord avec toi. J\u2019ai \u00e9t\u00e9 surpris d\u00e8s les premiers spectacles auxquels j\u2019ai pu assister (le hasard a voulu que ce soient des spectacles de danse, ce qui \u00e9liminait tout recours \u00e0 des classiques) de constater que les jeunes femmes (car c\u2019\u00e9taient l\u2019\u0153uvre de jeunes femmes) entendaient traiter des probl\u00e8mes de la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 sociale et politique qui les concernaient. Je pense surtout \u00e0 ImPacifico<\/i> de Maria Eugenia Pereyra. Passons sur les r\u00e9sultats obtenus, mais cette volont\u00e9 d\u2019aller y voir de plus pr\u00e8s m\u2019a paru tout \u00e0 fait digne d\u2019int\u00e9r\u00eat.<\/p>\n

Pour ce qui concerne Nina Jambrina, cette jeune Fran\u00e7aise qui parle couramment l\u2019espagnol, elle pr\u00e9pare une th\u00e8se sur Gabriel Calder\u00f3n que, jusqu\u2019\u00e0 il y a quelques mois, personne ne connaissait en France. La trouver l\u00e0, venue par ses propres moyens, m\u2019a paru tout \u00e0 fait \u00e9tonnant, pour mon plus grand plaisir.<\/p>\n

Matti<\/b>: I agree, of course, about what Nina Jambrina said, but comedies such as Usted, una cama y mis intenciones<\/i> (\u201cYou, a bed and my intentions\u201d) written by Enrique Gorena and directed by Denis Arancibia, would demand a much closer knowledge of local culture and circumstances for me to understand why the laughs. On the other hand, Aramburo says that Latin American theatre is expected to produce \u201cthe naivety of magical realism\u201d. This is from an interview in English on the site of Tallinn\u2019s City Theatre in Estonia.<\/p>\n

\"An
An image of suffering in “The female body as a battleground,” a Bolivian adaptation of a French text about the Bosnian war.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In counterbalance, I will add that some productions seemed didactic in nature. This was particularly disturbing in El cuerpo de la mujer como campo de batalla<\/i> (\u201cThe female body as a battleground\u201d) by the Romanian-French playwright Matei Visniec (originally Du sexe de la femme comme champ de bataille dans la guerre en Bosnie<\/i>, 1997). Directed by Oscar Lea\u00f1o, it was realized by Teatro del Tulip\u00e1n, whose members are graduates of 2012 from the theatre academy. The play is about violence toward women in the Bosnian war of the 1990s, but is probably relevant to gender inequalities in Bolivia also. I find it admirable that the young group embraces solidarity across geographical boundaries, even when the result looked rather schematic.<\/p>\n

I again mention the overcoats, not to ridicule, but just to note that the actors\u2019 task is indeed physical in so many ways. This remark leads me comfortably to the dance program of the festival. Maria Eugenia Pereyra\u2019s solo dance imPAC\u00cdFICO<\/i> was a daring juxtaposition of one body in two major events in Bolivian history. First, the Chaco war in the 1930s, when Bolivia lost territory to Paraguay. Second, the 1994 football World Cup, where Bolivia managed to qualify for the only time (so far). Pereyra sets out to explore the defeat and the victory, not from a nationalistic point of view, but actually embodying historical sensations.<\/p>\n

\"David
David Mondacca (seated) as the lovable bum in “Aparapita” with Maria Helena Alcoreza (second from left), a memorable achievement by the actress and the make-up artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jean-Pierre<\/b> : Tu as raison d\u2019insister sur le c\u00f4t\u00e9 physique du travail des acteurs (et donc des danseurs). Cela nous renvoie au probl\u00e8me de la formation, et bien naturellement \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9cole que dirige Marcos Malavia. J\u2019ai parl\u00e9 tout \u00e0 l\u2019heure de son architecture, mais c\u2019est surtout sur la qualit\u00e9 du travail qui y est effectu\u00e9 qu\u2019il faudrait mettre l\u2019accent.<\/p>\n

Matti<\/b>: There was a more national, if not nationalistic, hue in Aparapita<\/i>, a dramatization of Jaime Saenz\u2019s posthumously published novel Felipe Delgado<\/i> (1989). The group Mondacca Teatro brings Bolivian prose classics onto the stage. This production also celebrates David Mondacca\u2019s 40 year acting career, with him in the role of a lovable down-and-out.<\/p>\n

\n

\"1197068675\"
\n<\/a>*Jean-Pierre Han<\/b> est journaliste et critique dramatique. Directeur de la revue Frictions<\/i>. R\u00e9dacteur en chef des Lettres fran\u00e7aises<\/i>. Vice-Pr\u00e9sident de l\u2019AICT. Directeur des stages pour jeunes critiques. Ancien pr\u00e9sident du Syndicat de la critique fran\u00e7ais.<\/p>\n

\"Livanuori\"
\n<\/a>**Matti Linnavuori <\/b>edits the Performance Reviews section of Critical Stages<\/i>. He is a regular contributor to Parnasso<\/i>, a literary journal in his native Finland. He has written, translated from English and directed several radio plays for YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, and co-written one stage play, In Search of the Lost Baseball<\/i> (2006) for Koko Theatre (Helsinki).<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2014 Jean-Pierre Han and Matti Linnavuori
\nCritical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This work is licensed under the
\nCreative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jean-Pierre Han* et \/and Matti Linnavuori**   IX festival international du th\u00e9\u00e2tre \u00e0 Santa Cruz de la Sierra en Bolivie, 18-28 avril 2013. 9th international theatre festival Memoria in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, April 18 to 28, 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews","","tg-column-two"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2016\/04\/MatiHan.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7qGXm-4g","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/9\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}