After the most difficult phase of the pandemic, Humberto Tortonese decided to move a few pieces into his life. “I do a lot of radio, I opened, with two partners, the cultural center of El Loro Negro and I was left, like everyone else, with my head half touched by the pandemic. At that moment the proposal came to be done vassa“, the actor summarizes.

The play, by Russian playwright Máximo Gorki (written in 1910), opens this Thursday at the Teatro Regio, part of the CTBA, in a version by Felicitas Kamien, Walter Jakob and Agustín Mendilaharzu, directed by Kamien. Vassa is a woman trying to control her entire family, along with her very good character.

However, the decision to return to the stage was not an easy one. “Last December, I was a little tired, I didn’t know how to proceed. I prefer to enjoy everything and I was also sad for my dog ​​Alicia, who was sick.” The pet, who became famous for always appearing on the actor’s Instagram, finally died a month ago.

The situation had a magical moment, in the midst of uncertainty and pain, when Spanish actor Eusebio Poncela, a friend of his for many years, told him that he was making a play, The kiss of the female spiders. “Excited, he told me I had to do it and I did. But the comment that gave me a push was”the healthy theater“. The phrase has almost a magical effect and that’s where I thought.”

The next step was to leave the radio, after more than 20 years with Elizabeth Vernaci The Black Pop and focus on theater. “Although you enjoy what he does, you have to move from time to time, so as not to swell, and at least I need to,” he says. “That was a complete cycle.”

After meeting with the director of vassa and after reading the play more than five times, he was convinced to play the role of this authoritarian and controlling matriarch. “It’s not easy to accept a role because you take on a responsibility but, from there, I started to give birth to it,” he said.

And he added: “Furthermore, I would like to feel the uncertainty that the theater provides at the beginning of the rehearsal and not knowing if you are doing it right or not, of returning to the live ritual shared with the public who will see yes. because they love you. One target that audience because, in the long run, the theater gives you love. “

From Vassa Zheleznova that Gorky thought at the beginning of the 20th century, within the framework of the Russian revolution, Vassa now has that the context, on this side of the world, is the financial crisis, inflation and the explosion of society. There was a house and a company with almost nothing left, with the founding father on the brink of death.

According to Tortonese, little is left of the original Russian character other than his essence. “This woman has something unique about her and the work is put together like an Argentine family. She manages everything and restrains them because of her reliance on money. Vassa has so much character that her children can’t raise their heads, he “I don’t want to free them and control them with his power of money,” he describes.

There is drama and humor

With plenty of drama as well as some acid humor characteristic of the actor, Tortonese makes sure this version of the work has a bit of everything from each genre. And a cast consisting of Horacio Marassi, Anabella Bacigalupo, Javier Pedersoli, Mariano Sayavedra, Andrea Nussembaum, Darío Levy, Viviana Vázquez, Rita Gonzalez and Diego Báez (member of the Puppeteers Group).

The duties of vassa From Thursday to Sunday at 8 pm in Regio, Av. Córdoba 6056. Platea $ 1,050 (Thursday, $ 550).

POS