21st November, 2008
CASA Latin America Theatre Festival
Looking back
CASA 07: A successful inauguration
Last year, an incredibly ambitious CASA 07 presented a 5 week repertory season of Latin American theatre including 2 World Premieres from Argentina and Mexico and a UK Premiere of an award-winning play from El Salvador.
After Everything, written and directed by Luis Ibar from Mexico, combined the amazingly macabre true story of a mother who killed her own daughter and bathed in her blood in order to become young again with a modern day Faust story. Luis brought an incredible aesthetic to the piece and the piece was punctuated with great humour and playfulness. Sepia Dreams, by Fabian Politis of Argentina, was a destructive and detailed exploration of what happens when a couple can no longer communicate. Performed in Spanish and English, this performance was a journey into loneliness and silence. Black Light, by Alvaro Menen Desleal of El Savador, on the other hand was a riotous very dark political comedy. Two heads, recently cut off from their bodies in a public exectuion, meet, converse, rage, laugh and cry and still death doesn't come.
But it wasn't just about these three plays. Other events included a unique performance of an award winning Argentine play Objeto Mujer by Argentine actress Laura Brauer, a series of monologue performances from Peru directed by award winner Manuel Arenas as well a season of play-readings from Puerto Rico, a permanent Venezuelan Photography Exhibition and live music and dance events.
The venue for the festival was St Andrews' Crypt in Holborn which proved to be an very exciting and highly atmospheric found space. Over 750 audience members came through the doors to CASA 07 and over £1200 was raised through donations and the box office to aid Promujer Charity Organisation (Microfinancing and Sexual Health Education for Women in Nicaragua.)
"One can only admire the ambition of Daniel Goldman, the Artistic Director behind the Casa Latin American Theatre Festival at St
Andrews Church, Holborn. He has created a varied programme of three plays from different South American countries, two of which
have been specially commissioned for the festival and are world premieres, with the third, Black Light, being seen for the first
time in the United Kingdom... One hopes that this is the start of a longer term relationship between Tangram Theatre Company
and the Theatre of Latin America, far too little of which is currently seen in the United Kingdom. Judging by these initial samples
and a tremendous literary tradition represented by the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges and Mario Vargas Llosa,
there must be a vast, untapped treasure trove from which we could all benefit."
Philip Fisher
British Theatre Guide