/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE-CUBA: Naked Celestina

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Apr 29 2003 (IPS) - The months go by and the long queues continue outside the Trianón cinema-theatre in the Cuban capital, where ‘El Público’ troupe is staging a controversial interpretation of the Spanish masterpiece "La Celestina".

Nudity has become the true star and is the secret of the great success of director Carlos Díaz’s adaptation of the classic story by Fernando de Rojas.

Tickets for the play are even selling on the island’s black market for 50 Cuban pesos (around two dollar according to the official exchange rate) in a country where the dramatic arts do not normally draw large crowds and theatre tickets usually go for around five pesos.

When it comes to Havana’s cultural scene, "La Celestina" is what everyone is talking about.

"Don’t miss it for anything in the world," recommends 16-year-old Yusniel Ramírez, who claims to have seen the play "at least 15 times."

But attorney Armando González, 47, is not as enthusiastic. He says he has nothing against nudity, "but in the play it is gratuitous and aggressive. It seems all that matters is showing off genitals and touching each other in the total chaos."

Reina Pérez, a 36-year-old linguist, commented as she left the theatre, "The staging obviates a good part of the philosophical and humanist underpinnings of ‘La Celestina’, but that’s the director’s right."

Meanwhile, the more vociferous detractors are calling local newspapers and radio stations to complain about what the see as "a true scandal", "a work of pornography" that is an affront to morals.

"La Celestina", considered a fundamental work of Spain’s literature, was staged for the first time in 1499. It is the story of Calisto’s love for Melibea and the schemes of a famous matchmaker of the era.

Beyond the naked bodies on stage, the erotic games and the ongoing joke of this spectacle that ends in an extended Cuban rumba, emerge true-to-life concerns for this Caribbean island, such as the double standard and the sex trade.

"I don’t have an inclination for the classics, but they always transmit that spirit that possesses you, that moves you. When I come across a good play, I do it," director Díaz told IPS.

Díaz, who also founded ‘El Público’ theatre troupe, acknowledged that in the creative process "it is difficult to achieve a balance between what is written and what ultimately ends up on the stage.

The theatre reviews in the government mouthpiece dailies ‘Juventud Rebelde’ and ‘Granma’ have limited their commentary to praising the professionalism of the staging, the smart scenery and the strong performances of the actors.

Several directors of the Ministry of Culture and officials from other institutions of the socialist government have attended the play, but there have been no official criticisms or attempts to censure the work.

Theatre experts point to the millenniums-old and legitimate presence of nudity on stage, and while "La Celestina" dabbles in the grotesque, they say eroticism is part of what moves the world of theatre.

"Carlos irreverently uses the text by Fernando de Rojas, deliriously underscoring the sense of debauchery and adding a slight but constant tendency for multiple sexual relations," playwright Amado del Pino said in a conversation with IPS.

"The bodies, dressed or nude, nearly always caress the characters of the opposite sex, but there is also flirtation among people of the same sex," added Del Pino, who is a theatre critic for the Cuban press.

The fact that "La Celestina" has remained on the marquee since the middle of last year is a feat in this country where, beyond the moral questions of nudity and eroticism, there are strong prejudices against homosexuality.

Del Pino points out that "the gay aesthetic and the treatment of what could be called sexual ambiguity have been recurring themes in the repertoire of ‘El Público’, ever since the theatre company was founded in the early 1990s."

But there has always been something to question about the troupe’s repertoire, ranging from the quality of its projects to the actual stagings of different works, he said. Director Díaz is no stranger to controversy.