An ephemeral experience like the theater festival “World Stages 2014” at the Kennedy Center feels much more like a world summit on the human condition.
“Death and the Maiden,” which premiered on March 14 by La Mafia Teatro, performed Ariel Dorfman’s political thriller by morphing it into a stripped down, gritty adaptation about the lapses in moral justice.
Set in Chile after the downfall of a devastating dictatorship, Paulina Salas (Antonia Zegers) and Gerardo Escobar (Cesar Sepulveda) live by the countryside and lead a happy life. They are both cheerful about in Gerardo’s new position on a government commission meant to sniff out the remaining criminals at large who participated in the dictatorship.
One night Miranda (Erto Pantoja), a friend of Gerardo, finds that his car breaks down near Gerardo’s house and he stays at Gerardo’s for a drink. Over the drunken conversation between Gerardo and Miranda, Paulina recognizes Miranda’s voice and it begins to bring back latent memories of her time in unwarranted incarceration when she was raped by officials who kidnapped her. Paulina eventually ties up Miranda and demands a justice for a heinous crime that Miranda committed against her.
Moria Miller’s direction is rather hasty and she finds much more in exploiting Paulina’s sexual mania, rather than her more concrete abilities of dignified cerebral manipulation. Quite radically, Miller’s adaptation of “Death and the Maiden” sidelines a plot point involving an unseen affair that Salas suspects Escobar has had. The set design is cleverly designed and literally pushed forward, adding a sense of claustrophobia as Salas becomes more and more threatening in her search for justice.
On a wildly different note, from France’s Théâtre de l’Atelier company is “Savannah Bay,” a play by Marguerite Duras, that premiered on March 19 and tells the story of an elderly woman’s failing battle against Alzheimer’s. Genevieve Mnich stars in the lead role.
The play finds comfort and tragedy with the supposed relationship between actresses Mnich and Anne Consigny. Consigny plays a young women who is meant to be a caretaker, although sometimes its implied that there is a familial connection.
The play balances the curt poetic lines of dialogue delivered with subtle, quiet and ultimately exquisite performances by Mnich and Consigny. It’s a rather remarkable staging that digs deep into the tragedy of slowly losing someone to Alzheimer’s.
“Savannah Bay” builds suspense far better than La Mafia Teatro’s staging of “Death and the Maiden,” even without all the luxuries that a gun can provide for physical tension. The villain in “Savannah Bay” isn’t physical, but it’s just as much a presence as an existential threat that causes this elderly woman’s memories to disappear.
Each memory of her life, from her family to her storied career as a stage actress, falls away due to her ailment. “Savannah Bay” is a marvelous staging of Duras’s tragedy and even more so due to the delicate performances on stage and the masterful play direction.
“World Stages 2014” runs at the Kennedy Center through March 30. Tickets can be purchased on the Kennedy Center website.
