/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE-VENEZUELA: Curtains Go Up, Politics Sent Backstage

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Apr 7 2004 (IPS) - Colourful banners, torches and searchlights illuminated a swath of the Venezuelan capital’s night sky with the play "Arca", by Poland’s Teatr Ósmego Dnia (Theatre of the Eighth Day), in a preamble to the 15th International Theatre Festival of Caracas.

"It is a break from the acute political radicalisation that Venezuela is experiencing," said Carmen Ramia, the festival’s lead organiser. "It is a moment of rest and of tolerance: this is the other face of the country," she told a foreign press conference.

Thousands of youths and adults, many of whom have marched in the streets of Caracas either in support of President Hugo Chávez or in protest against him, all shouting aggressive slogans against the other side, gathered to sit calmly in the plaza dedicated to the nation’s founders, and followed every movement of the Polish actors.

"It is the same public that a month ago were killing each other in the streets," comments Ramia.

With ties to the anti-Chávez movement herself, Ramia said that "many of the opposition have criticised us for organising an entertaining festival after demonstrations have left people dead, arrested and even tortured."

"But my response is that we don’t have the right to deprive people of this wonderful thing."

Nine people were killed and 50 were injured from gunshot wounds, including members of the security forces, during the chaos that erupted during protests a month ago, especially in the middle-class neighbourhoods of Caracas. They were protesting the decisions of the Venezuelan electoral commission that postponed a recall referendum on the Chávez presidency.

But the organisers of the festival, which was founded 31 years ago by the late Argentine director Carlos Giménez, insisted on moving forward with the event in parallel with the Roman Catholic Holy Week, after cancelling the fest in 2003 after a two-month labour and business strike promoted by anti-Chávez groups.

Ramia pointed out, "That is what we did in response to the ‘Caracazo’ (a week of popular protests and looting that left hundreds of people dead in 1989), which occurred a month before that year’s festival. And the same in 1992, shortly after the uprising" of Chávez-led army units in a failed coup attempt.

"The theatre should serve a social function, as a space for tolerance," she stressed. "And more so a festival like this one, one that is purely popular, always including street theatre. And one can see all of the plays (around 20) for what two shows in New York would cost."

For Venezuelans involved in theatre, the festival has been essential in the formation of the 400 troupes existing across the country, 15 of which are participating in this year’s edition, along with the same number of foreign groups.

The week of plays provides a training alternative for the Venezuelan theatre groups, "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," director Pilar Romero told IPS.

Fellow director Ugo Ulive says the Caracas festival has been a pioneer in Latin America "and in its time was the most important" in the region. "It’s a bit reduced this year, but continues to attract first-rate groups."

Francisco Alfaro, another of the Caracas Festival organisers, told IPS that in 1990 an agreement was signed in San José, Costa Rica to link the festivals of Córdoba (Argentina), Bogotá, Caracas, San José and Mexico City, "but unfortunately the Mexico festival disappeared and Córdoba’s fell into disarray."

"The Bogotá theatre festival is like our son – only the son has outgrown the father," commented Ramia, referring to the event in the Colombian capital in which 50 national and 50 foreign groups take part.

As the Caracas Festival recuperates its biennial schedule, the people organising it have decided to use their talents to organise another one in the alternate years, in the U.S. city of Miami, with the first edition slated for 2005, said Alfaro.

"We had sought to hold the Caracas Festival annually, but in light of the difficulties and the high costs, we went back to the biennial pace," said Ramia.

To stage the event costs 1.5 million dollars. "Most of that comes from private contributions, but we recognise the contribution of the government, which has put up 18 percent of the total with a spirit of collaboration and without any kind of interference in the selection of groups we invite or the works they perform," she said.

Some segments of the anti-Chávez movement have accused the government of orchestrating a "witch hunt" in the state cultural sector, citing the removal of the directors of various agencies in the past year, but "we are obligated to seek reconciliation. We Venezuelans are warm, open people," said Ramia.

As the curtain went up on the International Theatre Festival of Caracas, the National Electoral Council continued to negotiate with government and oppositions representatives about a "repair" mechanism for questionable signatures that were collected as part of the signature drive in seeking a recall referendum to unseat Chávez.