2024-05-06 03:01:00
Carla Peterson I had seen previous works by the playwright and director Matías Feldman –author of the famous Proof Project where he investigates languages and explores new modalities of production and approach to viewers– so I understood his way of writing but I didn’t know how he worked to achieve those results. In dialogue with Page 12 about Reversea work that can be seen from Friday to Sunday on Paseo La Plaza, says: “I didn’t know if it was his work or if there was improvisation and then a transcription, but it had nothing to do with that. “It’s all in Matías’ head.” After a tour of different spaces on the independent circuit and official theaters, the Feldman universe arrives at the commercial theater on Corrientes Street with an eclectic and talented cast made up of Peterson, Marco Antonio Caponi, Nicholas Garcia Hume, Diego Cremonesi, John Isola and Emily Claudeville.
When Peterson and Feldman contacted him, he was already writing the play but needed to have a cast in his head to finish shaping those characters. “I read it and I loved it. There is something very familiar to me that has to do with the theatrical –declares the protagonist–. The producer who brought us together is also someone I trust a lot because of his vision and deep thinking about theater: Pierpaolo Olcese, owner of El Galpón de Guevara, a space with a programming unlike anything you can see.” . The references were good, but the unknown was how that text would be brought to the stage, how the action would unfold and how they would tell a complex story that addresses concepts such as the metaverse or avatars.
–To narrate these parallel virtual worlds they do not use special effects. They are their bodies on stage and the pure theatricality. How was the process?
–That limit between what is real and what could not have been addressed through thought, dreams or anything else. In this case, virtuality and metaverses were chosen, so I approached it from total ignorance. I asked questions to my son, who plays virtually all the time, and I incorporated other elements. One day we had invented this thing of adding and removing characters with a movement of the hands and I felt a little ridiculous doing it because I thought it wasn’t going to be so theatrical, but a few days later the Apple glasses came out and it was exactly what we did. While we were playing on stage, that was happening in the real world.
The actress speaks with curiosity and amazement about that world that seems a little foreign to her: “The other day they told me that someone had bought a piece of land in the virtual world, next to a Starbucks. This is a pretext to tell something, it enables the game, it is a convention in which we make them believe that we have a clear understanding with the virtual even if this is not the case. We are not avatars but we could be. I still can’t understand certain things even if they explain them to me.but in the theater I can do anything because there is a code that we all share.”
In Reverse A woman and her husband receive a visit from former partners with whom she worked at an art gallery. The initial arrangement of the set elements, of a pristine and aseptic white, could make the audience believe that in the following minutes a typical “living room comedy” will take place there around a dysfunctional family, but in truth it is something very different. The stage present becomes ambiguous and the boundaries between reality/virtuality become increasingly blurred.
–How did you build this character? There are several references to Carrol’s Alice and there is a lot of complexity in her because she is going through a duel.
–Yes, there are things that were manifesting. Alice appeared because in this world you feel bigger, smaller, characters appear and disappear. What I did know was that the work demanded entering into a painful world. No matter how much she tries to escape, no one is exempt from a traumatic situation like the one this woman is experiencing. Although theater is a big cut and one can even invent a language, somewhere you have to experience a really deep connection with that grief that you are going through. She is playing all the time to avoid it but the emotion, tragedy and pain appear constantly.
That Going back and forth between the comic and the tragic was one of the biggest challenges for Peterson because until now he had always performed comedies on stage. “The work demands humor, vitality and energy, but I also have to go through a lot of things. I had to look for moments to be able to breathe during the work and think deeply while I was doing it, to be able to repeat and find genuine emotion. At times it seems that the character is going to realize what is happening,” says the actress, and describes this process as if it were a score with its notes, its silences, its major and minor chords. “I understand perfectly what happens to this character and I feel a lot of respect when doing it because you don’t know what the people in the room experienced. “It happened to me to talk to people who went through situations similar to those of the character and they tell you that this metaverse is completely normal in their lives.”
The actress values teamwork and confesses: “I really like what you receive from other colleagues because I learned to work with others. I have my own way of solving, but I learned a lot by watching how other actors solve complex situations, I caught the good things or copied them.” On the other hand, Peterson highlights that it is very good to “hold something together when telling a story,” and that is why he is fascinated by working with actors who are attractive to him or who propose a job different from his own: “Some work more with the voice, others with the body and all that makes one also grow.”
This mixture between diverse acting styles is also reflected in the production logic that made this work possible. It could be said that Reverse It is the result of a hybrid model which involves a creator with extensive experience in the independent circuit, a group of actors with a desire to work together who were willing to put their time at the service of an ambitious project that required many hours of rehearsal and a commercial theater that decided to bet on this production in its season. “We rehearsed a lot, we put in time, we made decisions together. It is a company, a cooperative, a group with whom we put together, produce and manage from another place within the commercial theater. I think this is possible, it is good and it works.”
“For me the best theater in the world is what we do here and also the best audience”. The actress says it without much ado and adds: “There are all types of theater in all circuits, there are great works and great actors. It is something very rare, there is no city like Buenos Aires in that sense. Independent theater generates creative possibility. It is no coincidence that many actors today are doing theater, standing in the place where I think we have to be.” Peterson points out that the boundaries between circuits are increasingly blurred because today many works created in the alternative circuit or in public theaters pass through. then to the commercial due to the interest of the producers in the materials. On the other hand, he celebrates the presence of national authors: “It is good to buy rights to a foreign work but it is great that there is space for authors from here, both young and old. already consecrated.”
The theatrical rite and the challenges in the current situation
When asked about his own conception of the theatrical rite, he alludes to the idea of a transformative experience: “You are a spectator, an accomplice and part of something that is going to happen there. This work also proposes you to enter a different code and language, it gives you the possibility of letting yourself go without trying to understand everything. Theater changes you, there is something that happens to you physically because emotions come into play. Today it is a great plan to go to the theater.”
–What is your opinion about the stigmatization that artists suffer from the current government, in addition to the cuts and layoffs? What is the challenge?
–The challenge is to continue being there and sustaining what cost us so much. That Argentina is recognized for its cinema and theater is a source of pride. I lived abroad for a while and they knew exactly what we did, and it was also my way of introducing myself. This is something very difficult for a society to achieve. It always gave me a lot of pride and I felt like I was carrying a very important flag: that of our culture. Sometimes we take it for granted and it’s not normal. I have friends who perform in other countries, they come here and they can’t believe how we do things, the creativity we have, the places where we do theater. I understand that there are many people angry about a lot of things that have nothing to do with artists or culture, but I hope we don’t realize it too late because we are about to lose a great opportunity. In the audiovisual field everything is slowing down and, What does not happen now is a loss for the future. If it is not filmed, there will be no movies next year.
To argue his point of view, he explains issues that several of his colleagues have also pointed out in recent months: cinema and theater drive the economy, encourage creativity and provide employment opportunities for many people. “Do we really want to do well, do we want to grow? “Are we going to break absolutely everything?” he asks. “Sometimes I try to build my own metaverses so I don’t get so angry.”. I consider myself an independent actress. My teacher Miguel Guerberof taught us by example to be able to decide with total freedom what we wanted to do and I intend to maintain this throughout my life. We Argentines are recognized all over the world for our creativity. Why do we put together these stories about internal enemies? Those enemies are not us artists,” she concludes.
*Reverse can be seen on Fridays and Saturdays at 9:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 9 p.m. in the room Picasso from Paseo La Plaza (Of. Currents 1660). Entries by Plateanet.