By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Mar 23 2004 (IPS)

The "show must go on" at the International Theatre Festival of Caracas, one of the oldest in Latin America, which this year was rescheduled due to the high political tensions afflicting Venezuela in the past several weeks.

Carmen Ramia, organiser of this fifteenth edition of the festival, says the performances scheduled over a two-week period originally set to begin on Mar. 26, will be fewer and most will take place the week of Apr. 2-10.

The postponement, decided after a series of demonstrations and street disturbances were put down by the militarised National Guard in late February and early March, meant that some theatre troupes had to cancel their participation in the fest altogether.

The political violence postponed the much-awaited shows by Puerto Rican salsa-man Gilberto Santa Rosa, Spanish singer Paloma San Basilio, and the Bob Marley reggae band The Wailers. Also suspended was the seventh award ceremony, Venezuela Pop & Rock, which has not yet set a new date.

There will be 15 foreign theatre companies taking part in the Theatre Festival, and another 15 Venezuelan troupes. The notable absences will be the U.S.-based Momix, which was to open the festival with its "Passion", and the French Groupe F, which was to perform a street show titled "Un peu plus de lumiere".

Groupe F withdrew because it considered "that the country was not in a situation to receive a spectacle of its dimensions, for reasons of security and because they use a great deal of pyrotechnics. However, the group is scheduled to appear in the next edition of the festival," said Ramia.

This year’s fest will have a sneak preview, with the Polish troupe Teatr Osmego Dnia, and its open-air performance of "Arka", on Mar. 27. The organisers said that they did not reschedule this group because its equipment "was already on its way to Venezuela."

The festival’s official inauguration will be entrusted to the Sara Baras dance company and its show "Mariana Pineda", directed by Lluis Pasqual, at the Teresa Carreño Modern Theatre, which can hold an audience of 2,500. The Caracas festival, which was held for the first time in 1973, was cancelled last year due to the two-month general strike led by the political opposition, trade unions and business associations, which failed in their attempt to push President Hugo Chávez out of office.

"I think going forward with the festival is an effort and a gigantic risk we are assuming. But there are things that should not be put off. We have major international recognition that must be maintained. Suspending the festival at this point would send a negative message and would cast into doubt its future editions," Ramia said.

Theatre director Ugo Ulive said that the Caracas festival has been a pioneer in Latin America "and in its time was the most important" in the region.

"Thanks to this festival we got to know Poland’s Tadeusz Kantor, the Britons Peter Brook and Lindsay Kemp, the Catalonians Els Joglars and the Brazilians Macunaíma… It has put the best of western and eastern theatre within our reach, in our own place of work. It has opened our eyes," Ulive told IPS.

"For various reasons, the festival today is slightly reduced, but it continues to be important, brining first-rate groups, especially at a time when Venezuelan theatre is experiencing a certain amount of anaemia," he added.

Says stage actress and director Pilar Romero, the International Theatre Festival of Caracas "maintains an invaluable prestige… and the theatre companies of Latin America still consider it a goal to participate in this event."

"It is also an alternative in the training of Venezuelan troupes, for whom the festival serves as a sort of shop-window in which they show themselves, and get invited to other festivals in Latin America and Europe," she told IPS.

Romero, who has participated in organising previous Caracas festivals, said the problems entailed in bringing together so many shows in so few days are nothing new.

Even before the current political crisis, "there were important security efforts (to fight crime). There was coordination with the municipal police and private security. This time, the restrictions on currency exchange are also having an effect."

Ulive agreed, saying that the festival’s financial troubles have a bigger impact than those that could be caused by street disturbances.

"Uncertainty and political violence are worse in Colombia, but there they hold a gigantic festival, and currently it is the most important in the region," he said.

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