Cheers in Cuba for colombian theatre group Matacandelas.

By Isachi Fernandez

Translated by: by Josué Vélez

La Habana, may 16 (PL). With enthusiastic applauses and “Bravo” shouts, finish the presentations of the Colombian theatre group Matacandelas, leaving a proof of its 25 years of work.

The performances are framed in the Mayo Teatral festival, which, with the seal of Casa de las Americas, get together in several Cuban provinces, artists from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the host country.

Matacandelas reaffirmed its artistic value in the Cuban capital, with La chica que queria ser Dios (The girl who wanted to be God), and Medea, shows that will burst in Matanzas and Cienfuegos, in the west and center of the island respectively.

The first is an overview of the tormented spirit of the American poet Sylvia Platt, who took her own life at the age of 31, after stamping on the art the suffering of a woman hounded by fears, the reject to the conventions and the craving for fullness.

This is not a tribute conceived in a traditional way, or an attempt of clarify facts or causes that remain in the field of speculation, it is about moving into a world of signs that point to the sensory, the spirit of a distinguishable been.

Under the direction of Cristobal Peláez, Javier Jurado and Diego Sánchez, poetic scripts and music are taken in order to shape a great show that could have been the main course of the Colombian offer here.

Nevertheless, Matacandelas, that had already presented in cuba in 2002, convice us again with its second proposal en the current edition of the festival.

From the Lucio Anneo Séneca's text, taken to theatre in a very strange way, and with great quality performances, Matacandelas shows us its version of this classic of the greek-latin literature.

With this production opened in 2002, Matacandelas counts for the first time with an scenic direction which didn’t came out from the group: the Italian Theatrist Luigi Maria Musati, main responsible of the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D’Amico, from Rome, who took the charge of the staging.

Acting, singing and declaiming were conjugated on stage, where it was entirely respected the script from Séneca and was showed to the audience, with strong poeticstyle, the drama of a passion that shows as irreconciliable all the reasons.