A scene from “Boquitas pintadas”, by the Contemporary Ballet of the San Martín Theater. Photo: TGSM Press
on good feet –And apologize for the obvious similarities- the Contemporary Ballet of San Martín began its season in 2022. Then Cantataof Italian Mauro Bigonzetti, who premiered in March and continued with great success until the end of April, the company they run Andrea Chinetti and Diego Poblete has just brought to the stage the capital project of painted mouths.
This work, directed by Oscar Araiz and Renata Schussheim, was created for the Ballet del San Martín in 1997 and is based on the homonymous novel by the Argentine writer Manuel Puig (1932-1990).
Using sources that can be described as experimental, Puig wrote a small town story set in the late 1930s and in which he used only a variety of sources and quotes: letters, photo descriptions album, internal monologue, fashion magazine articles, the record of a spring. festival, the predictions of a gypsy fortune teller, a telephone conversation, a radio play.
Painted mouths, a creation by Oscar Araiz and Renata Schussheim, based on Manuel Puig’s book. Photo: San Martin Theater Press
infinity of voices
There is no narrator painted mouthsNot at all, but the many voices that, as in a puzzle, end up completing a story that in itself is almost ordinary. Using the same approach to the puzzle and from different points of view, Araiz and Schussheim adapted the novel, transforming at the same time the extraordinary literary material into an equally unusually good material.
The reader arranges, while reading, that story that Puig created with so many different perspectives. The viewer does the same in Painted Boquitas by Oscar Araiz and Renata Schussheim, as they scattered fragments although guided by a thread not as visible as it is solid.
In the original 1997 version there are artists as well as dancers and the texts recorded at that time, taken from Puig’s book, are in this version again.
A solid cast for “Boquitas pintadas”, set in San Martín. Photo: TGSM Press
The registration of a brochure
The picture the novel made about the people sank the heavy monotony of that fictitious town in the province of Buenos Aires it has the colors of a serial; characters they are, almost all, selfish, liar or coward and as in good serial on the very edge of the caricature.
This serialized record was adopted by the stage version directors. However, as in the novel, there is also here, real emotions, pain, fear, frustration and the sad awareness of unattainable dreams.
It was all throbbing on stage; it is true that there are some traces of humor and irony, but also that there is a kind of love for the missing creatures each in their own way.
A scene from “Boquitas pintadas”, the text by Manuel Puig performed by the Contemporary Ballet of San Martín. Photo: TGSM Press
Although painted mouths it has a shared direction, certainly the choreographic conception, of a perfect workmanship, delicate and strong as lace, is by Oscar Araiz alone. And the exquisite wardrobe, which recreates the beautiful fashion of that era, is only by Renata Schussheim.
The very important role of Ballet
The Saint Martin Ballet this premiere deepens his interpretative capacities even more.
painted mouths It’s a very hard job in this aspect and the dancers of the first cast (there will be four different casts) are doing a very good job in every way.
It’s impossible to name them all, but it’s not fair not to mention specifically the main characters, they’re all in a very, very high level of expression: Emiliano Pi Alvarez as empty Don Juan Juan Carlos; Ivana Santaella, the long -suffering Nené; Fiorella Federico, a charming and small Mabel.
Also Manuela Suárez as Celina, the hated sister of Juan Carlos; Carolina Capriati, in the role of the Sacrificed Widow; the threatening Gitana by Paula Ferraris; David Millán as the despicable Pancho and the passionate Rabbahstarring Lucia Bargados.
It is also not fair to mention some scenes and not others: but how can we not identify the destructive scene of Gitana, who reads the letters of his fate to Juan Carlos? Or the scene of Juan Carlos’s thoughts on his return to his hometown by bus? Or the poignant monologue of the maiden Rabbah? big.
What’s left? Thanks to all these artists, from Manuel Puig to here. We are facing a real artpersevering, working with imagination, work and commitment without any other consideration.
And finally, it doesn’t really matter, but it’s advisable to read Puig’s novel before seeing the play. They are over two hundred pages and a certain pleasure to be obtained using for a ridiculous price on a well-known Internet site.
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painted mouths
Qualifications: Largethe
Directions: Oscar Araiz and Renata Schussheim Music: period cape and waltzes and a sound design by Edgardo Rudnitzky Cast: Contemporary Ballet of San Martín directed by Andrea Chinetti and Diego Poblete Theater: San Martin, Corrientes 1530 Functions: Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 pm, through July 17
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Source: Clarin
