Dramatized readings uniting Argentina and Europe, in the San Martín lobby

A series of scenes will take place in the foyer of the Martín Coronado Hall of the Teatro San Martín , resembling a sort of theatrical gathering. In this space between the stage and the street, which can be invaded by diverse experiences, as it lacks the confines of a theater, five Argentine directors will use the semi-staged format to stage a first production of texts by five authors from Poland, Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, and Finland, all members of the European Union.

Theatrical Dialogues is the name of this series, which proposes a meeting between the playwrights of countries rarely seen on the Buenos Aires stage (except for Germany, which presents the play The House on Monkey Island by Rebekka Kricheldorf) and a group of Argentine directors who confront procedures and themes that involve moving towards aesthetics different from the usual ones. If we consider that Alfredo Staffolani, Lorena Romanín, Jorge Eiro, and Juan Francisco Dasso are also playwrights (the exception being director Monina Bonelli ) who usually stage their own texts, this series encourages them to consider the stage from other perspectives.

Theatrical Dialogues: Dramaturgy of the European Union, Argentine Scene is a series curated by Mariana Barceló and Carol Ventura as the Argentine and European experts respectively, with the support of the Cultural Relations Platform and funding from the European Union delegation in collaboration with the Buenos Aires Theatre Complex and the Metropolitan School of Dramatic Art (EMAD).

This project could be interpreted as a form of cultural diplomacy that seeks to establish links between Argentine and European artists, understanding that this bond generates a sensitivity that helps us understand and understand realities and fictional universes by generating stimulating aesthetic exchanges for both the audience and the artists involved. The goal is for these semi-staged works to secure funding to be realized and continue their performances, which also provides a boost to production in the performing arts.

“We were looking for works by young but established playwrights. We had set a limit of 50 or 55 years because we wanted a certain range,” explains Mariana Barceló, the Argentine curator. “We read 27 plays, Carol Ventura made a selection, and we called the 21 Member States of the European Union to contribute works. With eight selected works, we went to the Theater Complex, and they helped us make the final selection and contacted the directors. We met with Silvina Silbergleit, the Theater Complex's artistic production manager, and, given the budget and space availability, she suggested doing a semi-staged production.”

And she adds: "Defining that format gave us other characteristics. Silvina also had a say in the countries participating. The idea was to select countries that hadn't had a season at the San Martín to generate new dialogues. In a meeting with the Theater Complex, we narrowed down the five plays that ultimately remained. We chose plays that were dynamic and adapted to this semi-staged format, that addressed current and cross-cutting issues, that resonated in our country."

The truth is that the two directors, Romanín and Bonelli, and the three directors, Dasso, Staffolani, and Eiro, created a stage set that is closer to a final production than a semi-production. The actors learned a good part of the script, and the productions will be closer to a play in terms of the narrative use of lighting, costumes, and space.

For Marina Barceló, the location in the foyer of the Martín Coronado Hall of the Teatro San Martín gives the series an aesthetic identity: "I like the ability to do it in an unconventional place, in an unconventional way, as a contemporary proposal."

In a context of underfunding for the theater sector, with the INT (National Institute of the Arts) shrinking and almost on the verge of extinction, the European Union's contribution to this type of project demonstrates its appreciation for national theater. Gisela González, press officer for the European Union, highlights the interest of the European Union ambassador to Argentina, Amador Sánchez Rico, in the realization of this project, stating: "An equal amount was distributed to each director for the production and the fees of the cast and crew for each play." This is in addition to the contribution from the Buenos Aires Theater Complex, which provides lighting and costume equipment and the allocation of its production and support staff. "We are also in charge of communications and bringing three playwrights to Buenos Aires to participate in a series of activities at the EMAD," concludes Gisela González.

The playwrights who will be present at the performances are Constantia Soteriou from Cyprus, author of Bitter Country; Antti Hietala from Finland, author of Lovely People; and Polish author Julia Holewińska, who, in addition to writing Strange Bodies, is the deputy director of the National Theatre in Warsaw and will give a talk on cultural management alongside a representative of the Buenos Aires Theatre Complex and Sebastián Blutrach, theater producer and director of the El Picadero theater. "At Silvina Silbergleit's suggestion, we contacted EMAD to carry out these complementary activities related to production, translation, and different forms of management to compare the national model with the European one," adds Mariana Barceló.

A guide to the works to be seen.

In July 1974, the Mediterranean island of Cyprus was split in two by Turkey's invasion, the culmination of years of ethnic and political conflict between Greeks and Turks that had begun in 1960 when Cyprus gained independence from the United Kingdom. In 1974, a Greek-backed military coup led to Turkey's invasion and occupation of the north of the island. The fighting left nearly 2,000 people missing. " Bitter Country " by Constantia Soteriou speaks of women waiting for their husbands, who lost their children, similar to our Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

Alfredo Staffolani wrote a prologue that connects these two stories. Laura Santos, Paula Staffolani, Eugenia López, Julia Gárriz, and Lola Sierra will play these women in a production reminiscent of mothers' rounds, that circular magic of rituals that emerge spontaneously with procedures close to documentary theater, combined with live music by Guillermo Barbuto.

*Tuesday, June 3, at 6 p.m.

Some texts by the German author Rebekka Kricheldorf have already been performed in Buenos Aires, but it is still a novelty to learn about her work The House on Monkey Island, where a group of scientists meet to carry out a professional task. However, after a first part where Kricheldorf proposes an erudite discussion, the people gathered and selected to stay in that house discover that they are the beings to be investigated, the laboratory rats.

The characters played by Sergio Mallorquín, Vanesa González and Lautaro Delgado have recovered from a series of addictions: cocaine, eating disorders, sex, and they understand that this is the reason why they were selected. However, there is a fourth character played by Paula Ransenberg who appears immune to any form of addiction and the question is what role she plays in this coexistence. Director Monina Bonelli conceives of a production where images generated by artificial intelligence are projected.

*Tuesday, June 3, at 8 p.m.

Life in Poland during the Soviet era and the post-communist world are intertwined in the story of a character who decides to transition from male to female in Julia Holewińska 's Foreign Bodies . First, he is a young man fighting against the communist system, then a middle-aged woman left completely alone. His fellow activists, his wife, and his son do not accept his gender change. For someone of his sexual orientation, all political regimes are hostile.

Martina Ansardi, Marco Gianoli, Guido Botto Fiora, and Antonella Fittipaldi tell a story that allows us to consider political and sexual dissidence from a cultural and social perspective, offering us the analytical possibility of distancing. The space and costumes will be designed by Gabriella Gerdelics, and the lighting by David Seiras. As director, Lorena Romanín aims to break away from the semi-staged setting and create a dynamic staging where the changes in eras and characters are resolved around a long table.

*Friday, June 6, at 6 p.m.

One night, an upper-class couple who don't seem to get along very well meet a girl at a bar and take her home. There, a tragedy unfolds, narrated through relationships, through apathy and coldness: "Unlike other works that are more geopolitically framed, this piece allows me to delve deeper into relationships, to work with what isn't said, with omission. The tensions," explains director Jorge Eiro about the work by Finnish author Antti Hietala.

“We work with a spatiality in which it's difficult to generate blackouts, and so we considered entering into a rigorous play rehearsal, trying to work with that spatiality and not deny it, taking charge of that particularity that, in some way, accompanies the play's plot. I'm creating a staging that emphasizes space, movement, and thinking on three fronts.” The director of this work, which stars Miranda Di Lorenzo, Carlos Issa, Verónica Miramontes, and Marco Spaggiari, describes it as, “I was interested in further muddling the language, the dramaturgy in relation to the translation, and relying heavily on the acting, bringing the actors' voices closer to those bodies.”

*Wednesday, June 4, at 6 p.m.

Violence, sexual abuse, and rape are themes that are directly presented in "Case Filed," by Belgian author Luca Franceschi . "The play presents cases through characters who are presented as categories," notes director Juan Francisco Dasso. The performers demonstrate a desire to dramatize these cases with allegorical characters and the consensus or lack of consensus they have about what they should say or do, and whether or not they identify with the characters. The play gains a higher level when it shows this disagreement.

The cast includes Valeria Correa, Ariel Bar-On, Bárbara Massó, Juliana Muras, and Pablo Ragoni. "There's something very powerful about how words circulate, and I'm interested in preserving that structure and its rawness," Dasso continues. "There are many scenes that are read, and in others, I worked with the script I knew to put the material and the actors' work first without adding layers that might distract."

*Thursday, June 5, at 6 p.m.