ENGLISH THEATRE OF 19TH
AND 20TH CENTUIES GROUP A
SURNAME: Giarratana NAME: Melania
GEORGE
TABORI
LAS VARIACIONES GOLDBERG
Directed by Josep Maria Mestres
Version by Pedro Montalbŕn Kroebel
Translation by Antoni Lluch
Performed by Compania de Repertorio Contemporŕneo;
Teatre Rialto, Valencia, Spain. 12/01/2005.
Cast
·
Mr Jota: Enric Benavent
·
Goldberg: Josep Manel Casany
·
Raamah: Juansa Lloret
·
Masch: Ferrŕn Gadea
·
Jafet:
Manolo Ochoa
·
Mari:
Cristina Garcia
·
Ernestina
Van Veen: Iolanda Munoz
·
Teresa Tormentina: Nuria Garcia
·
Angels of the Hell: Manolo Maestro, Jordi Gomar, Pau Banco
Artistic and Technical Company
Stage Design: Pep
Duran
Wardrobe Design: Nina Pavlowsky
Illumination: Juanjo Llorens
Original Music: Alberto Torres Blandina
Stage Setting: Taller d’Escenografia Jordi Castells, scp
Wardrobe Setting: Doblete
Imaging: Sandra Figuerola
& Marisa Gallent
Co- Direction: Joan Miguel Reig
Photography: Vicente A. Jimenez
Sound: Rafael Bono (TGV)
Video: Mediterrania
Multimedia
The play performed in Valencia, was a version of the original play
written by George Tabori. The main characters were Goldberg, a tall man in his
thirties wearing very normal trousers and a sweater and Mr Jota, a man in his
fifties with white hair, wearing a black suit. They both had to organize the
performance of the play around The Holy Scriptures, Mr Jota was the director
and Goldberg was the co-director. Goldberg was on the stage before Mr Jota who
joined his assistant going down from the stairs placed on the front wall of the
stage. Nobody knew from which place Mr Jota was coming down so, since that
moment every member of the audience could begin to interpret: he could be God,
he could be a very important human being, and he could be the Devil…he
could be many people. Mr Jota behaviour was superb and presumptuous, he liked
to make people see how much knowledge he had, and he liked to give orders to
Goldberg who, on his turn, never contradicted his boss, even if he seemed to
disagree with the way he wanted to set the performance. At the same time, Mr
Jota seemed to love Goldberg as a son and Goldberg seemed to love him as a
father.
The stage was like a real stage that needs to be set for a performance:
there were panels, skilled workers checking the lights, the electric cables and
so on; there were the actors. They followed Mr Jota and Goldberg orders and
discussed with them the performance; there was the cleaning girl, the stage
designer….everything a performance setting needs to have.
Throughout the play, which was about the setting, many of the most deep
and existential issues were talked about. The audience could also assist to the
rehearsal of the scenes; the Hell scene was amazing because there was a music
in which the actors danced and sang to rock music. The best moment was when Mr
Jota gave the audience the shoulders to present the performance to a supposed
audience in front of him; in this way, the real audience became a part of the back
stage of the play as it was
participating to the setting.
The clothes that the characters wore were show costumes and normal
contemporary clothes. There were also scenes of sex and the actors were naked
but I did not feel that any of them were coarse or of bad taste: the nakedness
was dealt with very naturally.
The characters spoke a colloquial language, sometimes more refined,
sometimes with bad words, but thanks to the capacity of the actors, it was
possible to see how expressive and intense a language can become when wisely
used.
The audience reacted very well, firstly because the play captured their
attention and secondly because there was a woman not completely sane, who
laughed loudly when nobody did and people laughed consequently; this disturbed
the actors’ work but at least there was something that let us appreciate
more the theatre than the cinema because of these funny unforeseen events.
Auto-evaluation: Notable
Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
© Melania Giarratana
megia@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia
Press