LAS VARIACIONES GOLDBERG

 

 

Autor: George Tabori

Title: Las variaciones Goldberg

Theatre company: Compañía Repertorio Contemporaneo

Director: Joseph Maria Mestres

Cast:   _Mr Jota: Enric Benavent

            _Goldberg: Joseph Manuel Casany

            _Raamah: Juansa Lloret

            _Masch: Ferran Gadea

            _Jafet: Manolo Ochoa

            _Mari: Cristina Garcia

            _Ernestina Van Veen: Iolanda Muñoz

            _Teresa Tormentina: Nuria Garcia

            _Hell’s angels: Manolo Maestro

                                   Jordi Gomar

                                   Pau Blanco

 

 

Artistical and technical staff:

            _Director: Josep Maria Mestres        

            _Version: Pedro Montalban Kroebel

            _Translation: Antoni Lluch

            _Set design: Pep Duran

            _Clothes design: Nina Pavlowsky

            _Lights design: Juanjo Llorens

            _Original songs: Alberto Torres Blandina

            _Set construction: Taller d’Escenografia Jordi Castells, scp

            _Clothes: Doblete

            _Picture: Sandra Figuerola & Marisa Gallent

            _Director asistant: Joan Miquel Reig

            _Make-up: Inma Fuentes

            _Photograph: Vicente A. Jimenez

            _Soundtrack: Rafael Bono (TGV)

            _Video: Mediterrania Multimedia

            _Production: Pepe Miravete

 

Place and day of representation: Thursday, 1^st December 2005, in Teatro Rialto

 

 

Dramatis personae

 

_Goldberg:He is the director assistant. He is a jew who has suffered the nazism. His boss is Mr Jota who is the play’s director. Along the play he appears as a character who goes unnoticed, he acept everything  that says Mr Jota although he disagree, but little by little he is rebeled and he faced Mr Jota and in the end he sends Mr Jota out of the stage because it is the actors’s place.

 

_Mr Jota: He is the director of the play, and at the same time he has de role of God. He is a nervous and despot character. He always is ordering, and he has no respect with the actors of the play and with the director assistant. He doesn’t mind about the actors, the only thing he cares is his play.

The rest of characters are secondary characters. Ramaah, Masch, Jafet are the actors of the play,  Isabel is the libertine actress, Mari is the cleaner, also there are the angeles del infierno.

 

Space

The main space in the play is a stage behind the curtain, where the actors and the staff are working and rehearsing to show a play. The set is very worked, there are a lot of  elements used in the decoration of the stage depending on the scene of the play. There are three mobile panels that are used in differents moment in the play.

In the scene of Moises, a ladder plays the role of Sinai Mount.

They use not only the stage, the actors also go among the rows.

 

Lights

There are a lot of lights in this play, they play a very important role in the performance.

It’s very beautiful the light in the stairs.

There are moments when the audience is lighted.

In the moment when the Angeles del infierno play a song with the actors the lights are flashes.

 

Clothes

The clothes that wear the characters depend on the scene they are. But, in general, it is funny clothes in the actors, for example when they are doing the scene of Adan y Eva the man has a slip with a testicle out. The rest have clothes normal, but informal: the cleaner woman wears a uniform, Ernestina wears clothes very tasteless, Goldberg a shirt and a trousser, etc.

Teresa tormentina appears in scene just with a dressing gown and showing her body.

 

Atrezzo

 We find a lot of atrezzo in this play, depending on the scene that it has been playing.

 We find the table of the director wich is never moved, a microphone above it, chairs,  soft toys, panels,  the cross, intruments, etc

It’s very original when a ladder is used as it was a mount.

 

Theatre atmosphere

The play is very funny, so the atmosphere of the audience is laughs. But there were one laugh very peculiar, and funny to hear. It was a woman sitting in the bottom rows who laughs very loudly and made the other people laughed.

Also was funny, when I looked to the left of my row and I saw a friend of mine sleeping in the stall.

 

Personal opinion 

There’s no words to decribe it. I love this play, it’s brilliant. It’s a big production, there are a lot of actors and all of them very good.

The plot, in my opinion, is very good, interesting and funny. I find interesting the way in that two stroys are told in pararell, satisfactoryly and not to boring the audience. But I think that to understand the play you have to have some religious knowledge.

I like the image of the play, the setting. What I really like is the scene which the director goes down by the spiral staircase, as if he was going down from the sky.

I find that it is a really cool play, and although the play is quite long, there are moment that make pleasant that long time as the performance of the angeles del infierno.

Also I think that the actors have made a hard work because they were used to play the performance in Valenciano and it’s very difficult “to change the chip” and do it in Spanish without commit no fault.

I would go to see this play again and again.