2024-04-07 03:01:00
From its very name, the work Imperfect Tacitus, written and performed by Enrique Federman, is presented as a paradox in itself, denying what it affirms and affirming what it denies. In what appears to be the beginning of a conference given by the character played by Federman, the audience is ready to listen to a monologue full of repetitions and contradictions such as: “If after a bad thing comes a good one, it means that there is a before and an after And if there is an after, it is that we constantly live in the past.”
Under the dramaturgical supervision of Mauricio Kartun, and with a series of varied elements on a table that functions as a desk, in Tacitus Imperfect Absurdity is combined with philosophy, apocryphal quotes with questions about time and human existence.
Originally, Federman wrote a series of texts without the intention of being theatrical, a kind of apocryphal essay to which he added poems, poems and stories. It was at Kartun’s request that he saw in them the possibility of creating a one-man show and insisted that Federman not only act in it but also direct it. “Mauricio emphasized what he calls ‘acquired knowledge’, referring to my previous experience in managing several sole proprietorships and my participation in the oral storytelling school of Ana María Bovo. Furthermore, my past as clown It was an important element. The idea was to use resources from all these disciplines to generate the one-man show,” details the actor, director and playwright about the origin of the piece.
-What were the contributions that Mauricio Kartun made to the work?
-Essentially it was providing a thread to the work. And from that indication, I selected the issue of time like another thing that unites them. When I showed the text to Mauricio he told me that he needed something more linked to the supposed history of this character. The things he tells about his building, his family, his circumstances. But essentially, his task had to do with placing it in a context and providing it with information so that it was not simply me speaking, but rather a character and not so much Enrique who was telling the story.
-Beyond the reflection on time, what would you say is the theme that runs through the work?
-Something that Mauricio investigated, that I had not realized, was the paradox of it all. That the character of the work constantly poses paradoxes. And the title is in itself a paradox because we could determine the ‘tacit’ as something that has already happened, that is, it can be linked to the past, and the ‘imperfect’ is a possible future condition in verbal tenses. There is a paradoxical issue that makes, I believe, the viewer doubt whether this is nonsense, and from that, the misleading is filtered out. Because if this can be and it can be the opposite, the result can be misleading, as happens today in politics, for example. It was not written with that purpose, but today there is something that is in the air. In the end, what this character defends from interpretation, which is what the president also does, from that supposed conviction, is nothing more nor less than a acting, which is supported in interpretation. And to the extent that, through interpretation, a fake news of certain emphasis from the statement, it becomes news. We see it often, how for someone something is clearly fake news, for another it may be credible.
-Did you always have an interest in working on the absurd genre?
-I have directed several one-man shows that dealt a lot with the absurd, but also as a clown. It’s a style that I like a lot. I started out as a clown when the clown didn’t exist. Then I put together what was the first clown and humor festival that took place here in Argentina, which was called The Narizaso, which was something like an explosion of noses. But then I abandoned that practice and all the acquired clowning I turned more towards directing. shows like Do not leave me like this o bitches They had these clown instruments, but placed at the service of a more realistic theater.
-What does it mean to make a work produced entirely by you, in this context of total contempt for culture by the Government?
-Redoubling efforts and energies. Although there were different times, where there were supports and subsidies, this profession and this country gives us an exercise of that old phrase that is attributed to the comedian Fidel Pintos what did he say “in this profession one day you eat a pheasant and another day you eat the feathers.” Of course these circumstances make it much more difficult. In my case, not so much because the show does not have a great cost, but it does affect the fact that the public cannot spend on culture or entertainment. Although my entry is very accessible, When the entire environment is better, the culture also enjoys it.
* Imperfect Tacitus It can be seen on Fridays at 10:30 p.m. at Beckett Teatro (Guardia Vieja 3556).