Segismundos. the art of seeing use as support The life is dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca with the idea that we, the spectators, keep one foot on the ground and the other as far as our imagination allows us. In this line, Inc. National Classical Theatre/Antonio Álamo With this piece he skirts, leans out, asks questions due to the perplexities that it arouses in them, ironizes, etc… a said classic of literature. In case there is any doubt, I would affirm that this work does not intend to participate in the historiographical “forum” on how we should study and understand this work by this Spanish writer, but rather, it is a “mischief” that shakes people from one place to another. the same, so that from its “fissures” it is possible to introduce issues that have made this work something universalizable.
Thinking for a while about this baroque and bizarre thing that consists of finding a way to distinguish if we are awake or not, or if our identity has been so conditioned by how restricted the spaces in which we have developed have been, that perhaps we still We don’t know who we really are. It leads us to make parallels with what we can extract from the role it plays the character of Segismundo in the original work of Calderón de la Barca, giving us the opportunity to problematize what we face in our daily lives. As a picturesque story about a Polish prince who spends most of his life locked up in a tower, it would serve as an allegory to explain many things. Beginning, of course, with biographical questions: you know, many times we take refuge in stories from literature, cinema, etc… to find the words, with the images that help us to finish expressing what we have lived, and no less important, how we have lived it.
In Segismundos. the art of seeing testimonials emerge from one of its actresses, Sara Gomez Barkerwho in the last part of the work together with May Monleon, represents some anecdotes and reflections from his childhood, exposing how one with innocence and lack of information does not know how to differentiate what is to see well from not. Which makes it inevitable to wonder about what are the parameters that determine “seeing well”, beyond what corresponds to medicine. That is to say: To what extent does perceiving what surrounds us in a “clear” way guarantee us greater knowledge? Do the people who have been diagnosed with astigmatism and use glasses with a formula that suit our medical needs, not have access to at least two ways of seeing reality?
Inc. National Classical Theatre/Antonio Álamo
It is a fact that we live in a world that has placed the sense of sight as the most important; and even more so today, where social networks, the internet, or the so-called “disruptive advertising” have been gaining more ground in recent years. It is known that Socrates from Ancient Greece, spoke in Plato’s dialogues that “unveiling”, “unmasking”…, were closely related to understanding and wisdom. What I want to get to with all this is that what we can learn from putting the experiences of Sara Gómez Barker in dialogue with the character of Segismundo de The life is dream, is that we have standardized a way of seeing and perceiving reality as the one that we all have to aspire to. Standardizing everything to such levels, that the points of view of both are discredited in the ontological and epistemological.
It is as if we confuse “the correct” with the standardized, as if a person who has gone through the same thing as Segismundo in this emblematic work of the Spanish Baroque, his words and actions do not have a value and a meaning outside of what they have been told. adjudicated as “a feral being”: Here what it is about is getting out of binary logics that have dehumanized human beings. Otherwise, the others would be absolved of any responsibility towards their peers, since many behave like: “more cannot be done, we have to attend to the needs of the majority” How many people are there in that presumed “majority”? ”, if, basically, each person belongs to some group that has started at a disadvantage with respect to said “majority”? What kind of human being are you trying to promote by being consistent with these standards? Do we really continue to sell the idea that there are those who need to “be dreaming” to feel more upright before the “majority”, because his condition does not allow it in any way? Of course, a disability is a determining factor in the lives of the people who deal with it, but at the same time, these people are capable of making use of their creativity, the support of their relatives, the resources provided by the Public Institutions and initiatives of civil society, etc…, to dignify their lives and reach their own versions of emancipation.
Inc. National Classical Theatre/Antonio Álamo
That is where the characters played by Abel Mora, Cristofer Ortiz and Helliot Baeza serve as a counterpoint to show that the terrain in which all the characters in this piece move cannot be reduced to the fact that Sara Gómez Barker “needs to be dreaming” to act as a “psychic with full faculties”, or that the character of Segismundo in the original work acts in accordance with what that red moon on the day of his birth had “predicted”. Giving rise to the characters of Basilio and Clarín in Segismundos. the art of seeing, complement each other in the task of revealing that what is led to nihilism is more contingent than it seemed at first. behold it proceeds act in a performative way to go constituting precedents to which the people who succeed us can acceptr. That is to say: Perhaps today everything remains to be done in a world in which there is a crisis of values, but this is still an opportunity to promote a new paradigm in which all human beings are treated as human beings. Remember that “God is dead” by Friedrich Nietzsche, where despite the “death of God”, there are still people who watch over his corpse, while it does not stop giving off a terrible stench.
Segismundos. the art of seeing is a work as twisted and extravagant as the own The life is dreamand if I had not had professionals such as Sara Gomez Barker and Abel Mora that made up the backbone of this work (seriously, each of the actions of both showed consistency and truth); either Helliot Baeza and Cristofer Ortiz, which were as effective and precise as a surgeon who is very clear about what he has to do, and succeeds in his mission. This work would have remained a suggestion of what had been represented Antonio Alamo in your head. Who, by the way, carried out a very brave work aesthetically and in its message. Because any of the public in these times would be left with their “internal resistance” to continue settling on the foundations that have worked for them so far in what gives meaning to their lives and, let’s say, have “entertained” them.