THE 16th Havana International Theatre Festival – October 22-31 – will bring to the stage 450 artists from 22 countries in addition to the most outstanding Cuban theater groups, in a generous assortment of offerings ranging from the experimental to the traditional.
During a press conference held at the National Theatre’s Delirio Habanero piano bar, renowned Cuban director (Argos Theatre), Carlos Celdrán reiterated that the festival will be dedicated to eminent British theatre director, Peter Brook and Cuba’s Flora Lauten and her Teatro Buendía company on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.
As theater lovers well know, Brook, who is celebrating his 90th birthday, is an acclaimed figure at the vanguard of theater production, who despite being renowned for his stagings of Shakespeare’s works and development of Theatre of Cruelty giving rise to Marat/Sade and the dramatization of Mahabharata, has also seen successful film (Seven days and seven nights, The lord of the files, King Lear) and operatic productions (Impressions de Pelleas, by Debussy or La tragédie de Carmen, by Bizet).
Brook, “one of the most important and revered living theatre geniuses of our time,” as Celdrán described him, will not be able to make the trip to Havana given his age, but his son Simon, also a director, will attend the festival brining with the documentary Tell me lies.
According to reports, Brook filmed Tell me lies in London during the 1960s, in the context of the Vietnam War. The work was allegedly seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and only returned to him a short time ago, along several scenes thought to have been lost.
As if a reason were needed to pay homage to 2005 National Theater Prize winner, Flora Lauten, and her Buendía Theatre Company, Celdrán emphasized, “She is one of the great maestras of Cuban theatre, who revolutionized the scene in the 80s with her irreverent and powerful productions and will now present an interesting work in progress entitled Teresa”.
Lauten founded the Buendía Theatre group in 1986 with students from the Higher Institute of Art and since then has directed some of the country’s most noteworthy theatrical productions including Lila, la mariposa, and later, in collaboration with Raquel Carrió, Otra tempestad, Bacantes and Charenton.
The inauguration of the Festival (22) in the National Theatre’s Covarrubias Hall will see a restaging of Charenton by Buendía, based on Peter Weiss’ seminal work Marat-Sade; another offering demonstrating the ability of Lauten and her group to establish a dialogue with reality and history, with domestic and universal themes.
Also speaking during the Festival press conference, Noel Bonilla, a member of the organizing committee, noted the “large participation of all those visiting us,” including The Monte-Carlo Ballet (closing the event with a rendition of the classic Cinderella in the National Theatre’s Avellaneda Hall; Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment with the musical Broadway Rox; Komissarzhevskaya Theatre Academy from Saint Petersburg; Odin Teatret from Denmark; German collective She She Pop; and Máquina Theater, from Brazil.
Ecuadorian company Gestus, which has performed in Havana on several occasions, announced on its website that it will be presenting the piece Cucarachas, written by Cristian Cortez, during the Festival. The work “tells the tale of three migrants from Guayaquil, Ecuador, living in New York, attempting to survive the worst snowstorm the city has seen in years, all against the backdrop of the harsh reality experienced by illegal immigrants, struggling with migratory laws, urban violence and poverty.”
Ten days of fruitful exchanges between artists and audiences opening “the island’s stages to movements, ideas, offerings and dialogues between national and international colleagues,” – as highlighted in the announcement for the Festival by its sponsor the National Council of Performing Arts – theater, in its most diverse forms: for children or adults, by renowned figures, or street performers.
