Review: La Muerte Alegre by Teatro Espacio Agua Viva
by Michael Meigs
Most Anglos are put off by the Day of the Dead holiday. Skeletons, graves, and altars? Popular American culture has had little problem celebrating zombies, Frankenstein and Dracula, but those fantasy folk are at a comfortable distance from us. Anglo America prefers to keep death hygenic, remote and out of sight.
Mexico's Catholic and indigenous traditions look both death and family square in the face. Unlike the French traditional practice of simply visiting cemetaries on All Souls Day to leave crysanthemums at gravesites, the Mexican and Tejano tradition is to gather objects at an altar recalling the lives of our immediate ancestors -- not memento mori, remember that you will die, but rather recordamini: vixerunt! Remember them: this is how they lived.
The directors of Austin's Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center (MACC) set their community celebration of the Día de los Muertos for Saturday, October 24, a full week ahead of the official Mexican and the traditional Catholic holidays. Perhaps to avoid intruding into family observances; perhaps to offer the children gentle instruction in the tradition. Wandering from one display to another that afternoon as I waited for the announced 2 p.m. beginning of La Muerte Alegre, I was brought gently into lives of vanished individuals and of whole disappeared generations: A young man who succumbed to food allergies; faded family portraits; jovially painted plaster skulls next to bottles, musical instruments, garlands and magazines remembered as the favorites of those no longer with us.
The altars included a tribute to an artist and his partner-manager, as well as a quietly moving display of school portraits of young female murder victims, as restrained and dignified as the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. I gratefully accepted a slice of cake and the dismissal of my offer of a monetary contribution. I heard that the beginning of the play was to be delayed by a quarter of an hour, giving me that much more time to wander. I'd seen the costumed actors along the semicircular walk, followed by curious children, so I knew I wouldn't miss the beginning.
The play by Teatro Espacio Agua Viva under the direction of Ana Laura de Santiago was scheduled as the first of a series of presentations and performances that afternoon, right at the 2 p.m. opening. That timing was unfortunate, in that it occurred before the crowd at the MACC had reached numbers sufficient to fill the risers set up in the large auditorium.
La Muerte Alegre deserved better -- for its graceful charm, the commedia dell'arte framework chosen by Russian playwright Nikolai Evréinov for his 1908 fantasy, the art of the actors and the sly admonitory message of the piece. A Spanish translation, the wit of the Franco-Russian author, the use of stock figures of traditional Italian improvisational drama, bold costuming and the direct address of the audience by the lugubrious Pierrot (Nestor Daniel Almanza) both as prologue and epilogue -- in the fleeting moments of this brief one-act presentation, these were things to be treasured.
The premise is simple and poignant. In his lugubrious baritone Pierrot tells us that his closest friend Arlquin (Harlequin) the eternal clown is in his last hours of life. Pierrot sets the wall clock back by two hours, seeking to stall Death and benefit his friend. A mercenary doctor visits; Alejandro Acosta wears a typically hook-nosed mask that cannot hide the fact the physician is two-faced and avaricious. The lively, compact and wild-haired Antonio Medrano as Arlequin laughs at Death, teases his friend and bamboozles the doctor, fully aware that he's dying and yet still fully engaged with the sweetness and comedy of life. Heavy-hearted Pierrot is scandalized when his own wife Columbine (Michelle de Santiago) turns up for an assignation with the dying Arlequin. This leads to slapstick between the spouses, chipper chiding by Arlequin and the spectacle of the pleasure of flirting and lighthearted betrayal contrasted with Pierrot's leaden desire for vengeance. Death appears; mute, intent and vividly costumed, Maria Chavez is Arlequin's partner in his last dance of celebration.
Ana Laura de Santiago's direction plays Amanza's solidity against Medrano's glib and rapid phyiscal comedy. Live flute accompaniment by Andrea Desanti played at times to recorded piano accompaniment enhances the merriment, suggesting more spontanaiety than the precisely scripted piece really allows the actors. The director designed the eye-catching costumes; her striking make-up designs were assisted by Lorena Elias.
EXTRAS
Click to view the program sheet for La Muerte Alegre by Teatro Espacio Agua Viva
La Muerte Alegre
by Nikolai Evreinov
Teatro Espacio
October 24, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 2 p.m., Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-Americasn Cultural Center
