Review: Burundanga by ALTA Teatro
by Michael Meigs
ALTA Teatro gives a vigorous, polished and highly comic presentation of this comedy by Catalan playwright Jordi Galceran, who writes with the zip of Neil Simon and the courage to mock mercilessly the Basque terrorist group ETA , the clandestine band of separatist thugs that has carried out kidnappings and killed more than 800 in Spain since 1968.
Ironically enough, the opening performances of Burundanga in Cataluña coincided almost to the day with ETA's announcement of "a definite cessation of its armed activity." The Spanish-language version at Teatro Luna in Madrid has been playing for three years and has been seen by 250,000 theatre-goers, but Burundanga is curiously absent in most of the lists of Galceran's works, where his psychological thriller The Grönholm Method, as play and film, is prominent. Galceran's Facebook page records that other than in Spain, Burundunga has heretofore been produced only in Sofia, Bulgaria.
In other words, as far as I can tell, director Alex Pedemonte and the vigorously rising Austin Latino Theatre Alliance (ALTA) have just opened a premiere for the Americas. With this work and ALTA's productions over the last two years of stage pieces by Mexican playwrights Emilio Carballido and Barbara Colio, ALTA has established itself as a talented, serious and well informed exponent of the universality of the language of theatre. They perform entirely in Spanish and in this farce with salty colloquial language and tremendous speed. ALTA has prepared 'supertitles' that are projected high on the center stage wall for those of us who might need a bit of help (or even a lot of help). On opening night the titles and/or the operator were sometimes in confusion, and the English text is drawn from Galceran's script about ETA rather than ALTA's adaptation presenting it in a Mexican setting with the Zapatistas as the bad guys, but director Pedemonte is confident that all that will be sorted out quickly for the rest of the five-weekend run.
With no advance knowledge of the plot, I felt something of a sinking feeling as I watched the opening scene. Pertly attractive apartment mates Berta (Barbara Garza), a student, and pharmacology major Silvia (Daniela Carmilo) sit in their smartly furnished Mexico City apartment discussing Berta's love life, particularly her uncertainities about her boyfriend Manuel. She's just learned that she's pregnant. Does he truly love her? Should she tell him? Should she quietly seek out an abortion?
Just as it looked as if we were headed into a telenovela or Latino TV soap opera land, Silvia offered her friend an elixir she promised would provide all the answers: scopalomine, nicknamed burundanga or 'truth serum.' Nothing to worry about, cute Silvia reassures Berta: a measured dose in a drink will loosen inhibitions and induce the recipient freely to confess the truth. Additional advantage: the patient then collapses into a sleep and doesn't remember what happened or what was said.
That's a great plot device, even though it's not medically accurate. (Scopalomine has a number of medical uses and its hallucinogenic properties were sometimes used by police and secret services in the early to mid twentieth century, but it's most often used in real life these days as knock-out drops in sleazy South American bars). Berta's boyfriend Manuel (Juan Cuspinera) turns up with a DVD to while away the evening, and after a comic dance around a glass of doctored beer and his news that a buddy is coming over to visit, Manuel duly gets his dose. Galceran's fictitious 'burundanga' functions with designer charm and efficacy, with even an impressive 'doingggg!' sound effect to mark its onset. Silvia tactfully withdraws, and before too long Berta is quizzing adoring boyfriend Manuel about his extracurricular love life and his real feelings toward her.
If only it were as simple as Silvia had reassured her it would be -- but ah, the comic joy of complications! Manuel's friend Gorka (Hector Vera) arrives, all in a fret. The women try to get rid of him, but the guy's as sticky as flypaper and as pushy as a bulldozer. We learn that the men are involved in something shady, and further cannily applied doses of burundanga provide the answer: they're members of a clandestine Zapatista armed cell, deeply involved in a kidnapping plot. Life has suddenly gotten much more interesting. It will get more interesting still, especially with the arrival of Silvia's uncle, a successful businessman (Mario Ramírez).
The ALTA cast is clever and funny as they deliver complication upon complication. Playwright Galceran sets them scrambling to understand what's going on, then pitches them into competition to gain the upper hand.
Hector Vera's Gorka the perspiring outsider is a particularly amusing and ultimately deeply sympathetic character, capable of flailing about with a pistol and later getting deeply involved in making anchovy cream, vividly recounting his adventures, disappointments and ambitions.
Ramírez as the businessman is deliciously patronizing to everyone present, offering unexpected insights and advice out of his own secret life; his portrayal is convincing, although the role could have gained a bit if a somewhat older and literally more avuncular actor had been cast.
Burundanga is a lot of fun, with layers and layers of character and revelations. Perhaps the most satisfying of them all is ALTA's emphatic reinforcement of the image of Austin as a capital for captivating cosmopolitan and definitely unsnobbish theatre entertainment. Just a couple of miles away we've had Russian dramatic entertainment both classic (The Suicide) and contemporary (Dulcey and Roxy at City Hall); and here on the impressively constructed set at the Mexican-American Cultural Center we have an attractive, sophisticated multinational bilingual team giving Austin a version of contemporary Catalan comedy. Thanks and appreciation go to Alex Pedemonte, the cast and all who brought the play together.
Burundanga
by Jordi Galceran
ALTA Teatro
Shows will run from Thursdays to Saturdays and begin at 8 p.m. Early arrival is suggested. Tickets are $15 general admission and $12 for students and seniors. Advance tickets can be purchased online here. The show will be presented in Spanish with English surtitles and has a Classification of “R.”
