Ficha Sopa con pollo y cebada

Arnold Wesker

Sopa de pollo con cebada

A production of Teatres de la Generalitat Valenciana

Directed by Carmen Portaceli

There are 10 characters represented. The mean character Sara Kahn by Pilar Martínez.

Decor and lights by Paco Azorín.

Choreography by Rocío Pérez

Characters

The main characters is Sara Kahn. Sara lives with her husband Harry and her children in East end London. She is small, with dark hair tied in a knot. She wears dark trousers with a red blouse, symbolic for her communistic attitude. The play is divided in 3 time periods. Sara keeps her the same clothes only her hair comes a bit loose and she starts wearing a grey waistcoat. She (almost) always has a smile on her face and is enthusiastic. Her husband, Harry Kahn is less enthusiastic and positive he is the opposite of Sara. He is clothed in dark brown and grey, and later in a black t-shirt. He has problems keeping jobs and gets invalid during the play. His whole body and especially his hand stiffens. At the end of the play he is in a wheelchair and has problems talking. From the children I don’t know the names. The are all popular clothed, while the play takes place in the period 1936-1956. This is not detrimental to the integrity of the play. They also change during the time periods. At the start they are all like Sara, very enthusiastic and active (politically). In the last scene we see that this political activity has disappeared and they also dress more conservative. One of the women is pregnant and the others are all settled of settling. They feel less engaged to their political standards and care more about earning a live. They turned from a communist point of view to the opposite, a more capitalistic one. Sara Kahn is the only one who remains a communist in her heart.

Space

The play was situated in the centre of the theatre hall. So part of the tribunes where situated in the place where normally the stage is. The stage was a platform from plastic plates with lights under them. On the platform stood a large square table with chairs on each site. Props used are a transistor radio, a book, mugs, plates and wheelchairs. They use the table and chairs to sit on but often also as stage, to run over or dance on. In to scenes one of the girls sings on the table. And for example in the first scene all the ‘children’ do together a choreography on the stage, table and chairs. The chairs are moved from the table and back again. The actors enter and exit from two sides of the stage. Most of the time they slowly and silently enter the theatre hall during a scene to be able to enter on time the stage. This works a bit distracting.

Lights

Lights were especially important as extra information for the spectator. By projecting the year at the start of an act on the wall we could orientate ourselves. It gave information that wasn’t explicit in the play. The play started with the projection of 1936 followed by 1946 and 1956. Further were there besides the lights from above lights from underneath. From under the plastic plates. Especially used during the choreographies.

Public

There weren’t special reactions from the public on the play. It is a play were you could observe part of the other public good because of the stage in the middle. I was sitting on the main tribune (the place were normally a stage is) and on the opposite tribune were only 6 people. Seeing the public in the face also works disturbingly especially when a man went away and came back.

Opinion

From the three plays that I’ve seen I liked this play best. It was entertaining with the choreographies and the diversity of actors. I liked the story and written in a prose style it was easier to understand for me than the plays from Shakespeare.