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THE CRITICS |
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The best of 2009 For the amplitude and relevance of the works done during 2009 within the ambit of Mexican theatre, there are diverse stage creatives that could be mentioned individually as the more outstanding of the year; whereas as dramaturge, director, actor or scene designer, each time that theatre is a collective work. Except for the judgements and aesthetic merits of other creators, it would be worthy to mention Claudio Valdés Kuri, whose theatre proposals are well known at national and international scale, and who, along with Paul Barker, premiered El Gallo, in 2009, piece with an extraordinary cast of six actors-singers-dancers. Although the brief season, this one was perhaps one of the performances of greater relevance, by its sensitivity, intelligence and humour, in which it conjugated music, theatre and dance. Carlos Paul Characters perfectly boarded and studied, an extremely agile and direct scenic direction from Claudio Valdés Kuri, who also has been the dramaturge. Itzia Zerón, Irene Akiko Iida, Fabrina Melón, Edwin Calderón, Kaveh Parmas and Ernesto Gómez Santana have taken the musical challenge with skill, managing to convince and catch the spectator into the universe that represents the rehearsals’ hall and the stage. Jorge Barradas L’Orfeo, ago / 09 El Gallo receives an ovation at the XI Festival Música y Escena. The show displayed within the framework of the XI Festival Música y Escena was celebrated by the public with applauses that lasted for several minutes. The public remained captivated, celebrating with laughter and applauses the performance of the cast of Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes. Using lyrics that for moments seemed to recreate a nonexistent language, managed to be understood by means of gestures and corporal expression of the interpreters, the opera for actors showed a complex dominance of the scene, combining the narrative outline with a great exactitude in the musical transitions. Conaculta, blog sala de prensa 24 / ago / 09 The clear originality of each of its productions is characteristic of this group. That is to say, that its identity does not happen through a recognizable line neither aesthetic nor thematic, but rather in shaping a new horizon, deeply worked. Each work marks personal tendencies and a whole exploration field. Each work means to start over a long experience. It is not a play; neither an orchestra rehearsal nor least a conventional opera. It is…El Gallo, an original product. All with a great scenic courage and will of risk: vocally and bodily. The effect is contradictory and the professional seriousness of Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes is easily recognizable, together with a great sense of humour and with enough self-confidence to open new more free roads for theatre and for singing music. Bruno
Bert
Alegría
Martínez
Pablo
Espinosa
¡Enjoying! Solidity and funny humour of these actors-dancers-singers or vice versa, these singers-actors-dancers. Olga
Harmony The result is very interesting, and overall, sublime. El Gallo, an opera for actors, is what it is in its highest consequences: the performers weapons are nothing but years and years of improvement of vocal and musical techniques, accomplishing an amusing result. Neatness of their voices along the scenic movement (in charge of the Butoh teacher, Diego Piñón) creates an action that keeps you in the present at every moment. Scene by scene, everything is a delight, technically speaking. The fusion of the reality’s horizon, framing the one of fiction, creates one of the most interesting experiences… Claudio Valdés Kuri has skillfully designed a show in which the Bajtinian expression of the body, the delicate shades of the voice and the Rabelais’ medieval devices of humour, coexist harmoniously. The laughter as the acute reflection, the route to deepen in our fragmented human condition. Enrique Marín Enrique Marín Blog, mar / 09 The peculiar work on stage demonstrated why it’s favourite of the public. It is a proposal outside the traditional schemes of the theatre. The spectators, who decide to be part of this scenic adventure, must be aware that it is not a solemn opera where the interpreters almost do not move. On the contrary, in this work the corporal movement is a fundamental element to give life to the narrative, to the history of these singers who want to prevail and to outstand against the others. Very specific characters that are skillfully interpreted by Irene Akiko Iida (Japan), Kaveh Parmas (Iran), Fabrina Melón (The French Antilles), and Ernesto Gómez Santana, Edwin Calderón and Itzia Zerón (México). There is no chance for any distraction. The piece has a perfect continuity. The scenes are of great symbolism, which allows spectators to submerge in each of them. This, added to the live musical interpretation of the students of the National Conservatory of Music, which injects major intensity to the staging. Manuel Zavala y Alonso Conaculta, blog sala de prensa 15 / sep / 09 |
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