Word: castros
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...revolutionary awakening. And on that day, one could reflect on the savage injustices in South Africa, Chile and similar repressive countries. But one could also have called attention to those revolutionaries rotting in Cuban prisons. I think, for example, of Major Huber Matos, a comrade-in-arms of Fidel Castro in the guerilla movement, who has been 18 years--yes, 18 years--in jail, for the sole crime of expressing disagreement with the Maximum Lider, and who spent a considerable period of time in solitary confinement for refusing to wear the obnoxious yellow jackets that Castro has decreed such prisoners...
...CASTRO'S COSTUMES are interesting variations on the usual Roman garb: robes looped and pinned in assorted way, often split up the sides exposing the loin-cloths beneath. Caligula wears especially formidable garments, a black robe in the first act, a red robe in the second, and in the death scene a combination of colors contrasting the themes of Eros and Thanatos. The multi-level set mixes Roman with primitive, cleverly suggesting the conflict between civilization and repressed primal instincts. A pool in the center of the stage allows the actors to stare into the water and look miserable...
Basically, Castro gets caught in a hot-box between third base and home plate: It's difficult to ride Camus roughshod, and it's difficult to teach a course in French existentialism in three hours to theater-goers who probably came to escape that very thing. More importantly, it's absolutely impossible to do both and expect your play to make a lasting impression, especially when you're working with students. Castro was overly ambitious when he chose Caligula for members of the experimental ensemble...
...CASTRO'S AMBIVALENCE about emphasizing passion or philosophy mars the entire production--the performance ends up fuzzy, focusing on neither theme. This swinging back-and-forth results in passion when a delicate appreciation of the philosophical base of the play is more appropriate, or staunch underplaying when intensity is required. In one scene, Caesonia, Caligula's mistress (Sonia Martinez), tries to explain to Scipio (Matthew Horseman), a sensitive and innocent friend of the young Roman emperor, why Caligula had his father's tongue torn from his mouth and then slain for no apparent reason. In an attempt to make Scipio...
...nice touches fail to illuminate the complex, confused philosophy of the young Albert Camus, and Vicente Castro in his last play at Harvard merely trips through it. There are interesting moments in this production, but riding Camus roughshod is, in the great Caligula tradition, artistic suicide...