Pregones Theatre by Eva Cristina Vásquez

Author:Eva Cristina Vásquez [Vásquez, Eva Cristina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, 20th Century, Performing Arts, Theater, General, Social Science, Sociology
ISBN: 9781317793823
Google: VeXgAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-06-23T16:05:25+00:00

Another success of the play, assisted by its musical environment, is the importance it lends to religious imagery within a society where there are obvious contradictions between deeply rooted religious beliefs, and the disintegration brought about by slander, liquor and debauchery. Throughout the play, the characters who represent the People are staunch defenders of an altar at the center of the stage, but once they are physically distant from it, they behave in an "unchristian" manner. Nevertheless, they become the first to cast an accusatory stone at the protagonist. We see this change in behavior when the chorus, representing the People, try to prevent Medea from approaching the altar, a gesture of non verbal violence: "It can also occur that a character positions him or herself in another character's way, thus performing an act of violence by impeding the other person's movement" (Albuquerque, p. 93). All religious piety disappears before a reality where the moral values that supposedly sustain Christian faith are reduced to violence.

As in the other two plays discussed in this chapter, images also play a meaningful role in the staging of Medea's Last Rosary. The visual becomes vitally important to clarify the vision of the play. For example, the adding and choreographing of sequences that were not in the original, function along with the musical elements to bring into being the theatrical ritual. Among the images added by the company, a mime sequence that describes the planning and execution of the murder of Medea's husband is outstanding. This mime sequence is illustrative of the "physical aggression" category, as the account of the murder comes alive in the recreation of a violent death (Albuquerque, p. 97). Albuquerque states: "The reporting of a violent event is also effectively accomplished when a dead character relives the violence that led to death" (p. 45). The sequence is presented as a hallucinatory flashback experienced by the protagonist. As in this visual narration, the use of frozen images of short duration throughout the play helps create a collection of pictures of a typical town square. This provides visual enrichment for the work and critical commentary about a society where crimes of passion frequently tarnish the more positive images embedded in folkloric traditions. The contrast between the still images of the people-chorus and the hectic movements of the main character remind us in turn that despite collective stagnation, the individual continues to develop.

Within the non-verbal violent discourse in Medea, we note other aspects studied by Albuquerque that enrich the visual value of the work and that fall into the category of theatrical image: 1. The use of costumes for violent purposes (Albuquerque, p. 83) in the choreographed planning and execution of the murder of el Amado (the Beloved), Medea's husband (p. 10).38 In this sequence, symbolically more than literally, the murder of the character is played out by taking away his clean jacket and putting a bloody one on him. 2. We also see what Albuquerque describes as violent movement of characters that injure other characters by merely advancing toward their victims (Albuquerque, p.

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