The delightful frenzy
of the Havana Theater Festival

Mireya Castañeda

WHEN talking of 85 performances in 10 days in Havana, one can understand the frenzy of less seasoned theatergoers given this reality. However, it is a welcome and desired frenzy.

The 14th Havana Theater Festival (October 28 to November 6) offered a varied program which assuredly satisfied all tastes, with venues crammed to capacity, thus reaffirming the convening power of this biennial festival.

Some examples. A total of more than 70 companies from Cuba and 16 other nations, with a spectrum ranging from a classical Aristophanes’ drama, from the State Company of Turkish Theater, to vanguard pieces.

A Night with Harold Pinter also prompted interest and filled the National Museum of Fine Arts Theater. Directed by Andy de la Tour, it comprises excerpts of works by the 2005 National Literature Prize Winner, with the added attraction of one of the actors from the Harry Potter film series, Briton Roger Lloyd Pack (Bartemius "Barty" Crouch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).

Cuban director Carlos Díaz is always an event. This time he surprised audiences with Si vas a sacar un cuchillo, úsalo (If You Pull out a Knife, Use It), with actors Carlos Caballero and Elizabeth Doud), produced in terms of lighting, wardrobe and scenery with his distinctive stamp, for the U.S. company FUNDarte, with texts by Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot, Not I, Endgame and Happy Days).

This maelstrom imposed difficult choices on audiences. The excellent productions of many Cuban groups seen and commented on in their time had to give way to new works. The exception was Charenton, revisited by Flora Lauten (National Theater Prize 2005), dedicated actress and director of Teatro Buendía, and essayist and dramatist Raquel Carrió.

This was not an invitation to pass up on the first day of the Festival in Buendía’s headquarters, the church (temple?) on Loma and 39, where the company has regaled us with La Cándida Eréndira (1992), Otra Tempestad (1997), La Vida en Rosa (1999), Bacantes (2001), and in June 2005, the premiere of Charenton, the German Peter Weiss (1916-1982) version of the persecution and assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as performed by the inmates of the Charenton Asylum under the direction of the Marquis de Sade, better known as Marat-Sade.

Carrió described it as "comic opera." In 10 scenes and with an epilogue, Flora Lauten, with wardrobe and lighting design by Carlos Repilado, offered a grandiose spectacle, very a la Buendía.

Charenton is all intensity, both visually and in terms of sound, with solid performances from Alejandro Alfonzo, as the Marquis; Sandra Lorenzo, Charlotte Corday; and an outstanding Ivanessa Cabrera as Simone, Marat’s wife, with her powerful voice.

One hour and 40 minutes to experience a high-flying production.

Fortunately, in the Mella Theater, director Tony Díaz was sitting a few seats away and explained why, in the program for Donde hay agravios no hay celos, the name of his Mefisto Teatro includes the precision "Cuba-Spain."

"It is my company, but we reached an agreement with Arte Promociones Artísticas to create it as a kind of branch in Spain. It’s a cultural exchange, with Cuban and sometimes Spanish actors. We started out with Fuenteovejuna, by Lope de Vega, and now we are presenting Donde hay agravios no hay cellos, written in 1636 by Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla (1607-1648) and directed by Liuba Cid."

A great innovator in the comedy genre, Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla was one of the most outstanding dramatists of the Spanish Golden Age. His comedies have been included in the repertoires of the most prestigious companies in the world for 400 years.

The 2011 Festival included this "comedy of manners," a jewel of humor and the picaresque, in the version of Liuba Cid (Havana, 1968) and with exceptional wardrobe design by Tony Díaz himself, using cardboard, paper, wood and aluminum to dress his characters. While these materials exaggerate their bodies, they also ridicule them.

The cast, all Cuban, included names well-known to the public: Vladimir Cruz (from Strawberry and Chocolate) is Don Juan de Alvarado; Justo Salas, Sancho, his servant; Claudia López, Doña Inés de Rojas; Dayana Contreras, Beatriz, her maid; Ramón Ramos, Don Fernando, Doña Inés’ father; Yolandita Ruiz, Doña Ana de Alvarado, Don Juan’s sister; Rey Montesinos, Don Lope de Rojas; Gabriel Buenaventura, Bernardo, his servant; and Alberto Joya, court musician.

The production was very well received, given that this classic comedy of errors has a comedy theater flavor, but emanates a contemporary note in relation to production and design.

The Broadway Ambassadors review, which contains some of the best known numbers from the great musical shows, had its space in the Gran Teatro of Havana’s García Lorca Hall.

The function (November 4), began with an introduction by Robert E. Nederlander, founder and president of Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, one of the most important production companies on the Broadway theater circuit, who affirmed that it was an honor for them to act in such a beautiful theater and have the privilege of presenting the best of his country’s art, in this case Broadway musicals. "It is a privilege to be involved in this cultural exchange with Cuba."

The stage was set by four outstanding singers: Luba Mason, Capathia Jenkins, Norman Orell Lewis and Robert Evan Bucher, with Jeremy Roberts, the show’s musical director, at the piano. They were accompanied by 15 musicians from Havana’s Gran Teatro orchestra.

And they opened with Chicago. For the public crowded into the hall, Luba Mason recreated Velma Kelly, with an unrepeatable "All that jazz," from her Broadway performance with Brooke Shield’s Roxie Hart. She demonstrated and confirmed the reason for so much success, an exceptional voice.

It would be a fantastic night, as Rogers and Hammerstein wrote in the song "Some Enchanted Evening," interpreted by Norman Lewis.

During close to two hours there were ovations for Capathia Jenkins ("Somewhere", from West Side Story ), for Evan (Hello, Dolly) and for every song from musicals like The Wizard of Oz, Aint Misbehavin’, Phantom of the Opera, Company, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Man of La Mancha, Les Misérables, Jekyll and Hyde, Dreamgirls, Hairspray and, as a finale, the four of them together in two numbers from Hair and two of the best known songs in the world, "Aquarius" and "Let the sun shine in."

The 14th Theater Festival, diverse, with distinct ways of occupying spaces, had a fitting end. The company of the unforgettable Antonio Gades (Elda, November 14, 1936 – Madrid, July 20, 2004) performed for the first time in Havana, and did so with Bodas de Sangre, the company’s choreographic jewel staged by the National Ballet of Cuba in 1978.

Emotion was the leading sentiment of the night. It was to keep the illustrious dancer in the collective memory, his powerful personality, his tremendous stage presence, his unique way of twisting, moving his arms, and those legs in seemingly perpetual movement.

The company, founded seven years ago, after Gades’ death, has the artistic direction of Stella Arauzo and is made up of those who knew Gades and young dancers continuing his legacy.

The wedding scene, with the Ay, mi sombrero pasadoble and the moving way in which Gades expressed the tragedy, written by Federico García Lorca; the total silence during the fight between the bridegroom and the lover, where knives glittered, and as if in slow motion, are two moments which remain in the visual memory of audiences, aware that they had to hold the ovation until the very end.

Afterwards came Suite Flamenca, seven pieces ("Soleá", "Soleá por Bulerías", "Farruca", "Zaateado", "Tanguillo", "Tangos de Málaga", "Rumba") of traditional flamenco dance under the prism of the maestro. Solos, duos and group dances, highly applauded, accompanied on stage by singers and guitarists.