By Maria Montecelos |
Santo Domingo (EFE).- The Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo revives on the tables of the National Theater of Santo Domingo, played by the actor Augusto Feria, in the theatrical adaptation of the novel by Mario Vargas Llosa “La Fiesta del Chivo”.
Based on the text by the Spanish writer Natalio Grueso, the production directed by the playwright Manuel Chapuseaux introduces new stage resources to the script.
Led by a cast of experienced actors who immerse the viewer in the Trujillo regime.
Elvira Taveras, Henssy Pichardo, Miguel Bucarelly, Fausto Rojas, Francis Cruz and Cindy Galan.
They will offer only seven functions until this Sunday, April 30, after three months of “intense” work.
director’s vision
“Since I read the text, I had a vision that was somewhat different from that of other montages that have been made, there are many things that I modified, I took a lot of risk, that’s why I really enjoyed it,” Chapuseaux told EFE.
For the playwright, simply following a text “is very boring.” For this reason, “I took many liberties, but I was lucky to have an unbeatable cast.”
“I was able to concentrate on the scenic contribution and not so much on the direction of the actors because it was practically not necessary.”
Among the licenses that have been taken is a game with the masks worn by various characters, a resource that Chapuseaux argues is “a work split in two.”
“The first part is an almost cartoonish version”, but “from the moment the real conflict begins, things change, we enter the realm of the realistic, of the natural, and it occurred to me that a good resource was the use of the masks” that the actors take off at a certain point “to mark that transition, because the play suggested it to me”.
It is also her harvest that the character of Urania, the narrator in Vargas Llosa’s novel, is played by two actresses of different ages who coincide on stage.
“Everything that was seen on stage had to be seen through her eyes”, those of the adult Urania, as she remembers it, while the adolescent Urania recreates the events simultaneously.
characters and cast
Augusto Feria brings Trujillo to life under the premise that “an actor must be his character’s defense attorney. That’s what we do, defend it from all those myths, all those lies. We demystify it a bit”, but avoiding imitation, managing to humanize the dictator at times, generating repulsion in others.
For him, “it has been easy” to play the dictator because his figure has always fascinated him, so he “knew where to look for” sources and references to build the character, he told EFE.
Elvira Taveras is the adult Urania, the character who exposes the situation of women at that time and who represents many Dominican women who suffered the terror of the regime, explained the actress.
After four decades in the profession, it is very motivating to “have a challenge” like the one that this role entails, in which he often acts in the background, recalling his story while it is happening on stage.
“It is really a challenge because Urania is the narrator of the story and, at the same time, she is witnessing everything all over again” upon returning to the country 35 years after leaving it, she said.
It is also a challenge for Cindy Galán, the adolescent Urania, whose voice is never heard:
“There are moments when I would like to speak and I have to breathe and assume it from another point. For me that was the biggest challenge, not being able to speak but being in that drama at all times.”
More characters from the Fiesta del Chivo
For Miguel Bucarelly, when representing a character as well known as Joaquín Balaguer “it is easy to fall into imitation and ridicule”, but he has done “everything possible to maintain that characteristic discretion” of Trujillo’s successor.
“The character seems very interesting to me, but within the context of the work he has some nuances that must be handled so as not to make him look ridiculous because that’s not what it’s about. It is about the characters being judged by the audience, not the actor. It is not for me to have his emotions, but for the public to pick them up, ”she pointed out.
The cast is completed by Henssy Pichardo, as Senator Cabral, Urania’s father.
Francis Cruz (Manuel Alonso), an actor that Trujillo found in New York and brought into his entourage to advise him on fashion and trends.
And Fausto Rojas, as the sadist Johnny Abbes, head of the regime’s Military Intelligence Service.
The latter two have enjoyed their villainous roles, “it’s fun and challenging,” as well as being “a great opportunity to stage a Dominican story,” based on history but with a lot of fiction, Cruz said.
Rojas was “sure that the public will enjoy the story, which we must listen to again at this time.”