A couple of weeks ago, despite having a lot of work during the day on both, friday and saturday,and also a patt of sunday, there were some important events for me personally and as a family that I attended in the evenings.
The first was the staging of a play called "This Train Is Called Desire," in which my wife plays the role of Estela, a high-society woman who one day ran into a low-life, fell in love, left everything (including her family), and went to live with him in a place of terrible conditions. Their love was complex and fraught with physical abuse and needs that, for her, became part of her daily routine, since in her mind and heart, it was her love for Marlon (the boy she met) and his "love" for her that was most important above all. There are many other details about the staging of the play that I won't go into here, as well as some other characters who are vitally important to the story.
This presentation was held (not for the first time) because it was important to promote or demote the actors involved in it; it was an evaluation, and that's why it was so important. It was a sensational performance, the best I've ever seen (and I have seen many), and the actors' work (my girlfriend included) was impressive, which earned them a promotion to the first level as actors.
My girlfriend had also told me about a theater group from Matanzas called "El Portazo," which, according to her, put on high-quality performances with content that, supported by dance, music, and acting, accurately addressed and denounced political and social issues that seriously affect us today, in a subtle yet clear and profound way.I had never heard avout them or seen them before, so I felt curious about it. They were gonna be presenting 2 different shows on Friday and Saturday.
They were performing relatively close to where the evaluation of the group my girlfriend belongs to took place the same two days, so after it was over, we went there, lucky to be in time to watch the performance from the beginning.
I wish I were a writer, so I could best express and describe what I witnessed there. I always had my doubts and thought...
What could these people possibly do that could interest, attract, or entertain me with such performances (of which I've seen many)?
Great stories can be told on a stage, fiction stories that can be able of capturing and getting us in there where they want to take us to enjoy, to live, to feel...
But then there's those other stories charged of reality, a hard and sad reality that's artisticly taken to a stage and performed by a group of young men and ladies with such a good taste, in such a nice and tasty detailed way, full of energy and colors, dressed of entertainment, joy, sadness, reflection, fun and intelligence. Those stories carry some value on them that has no limits.
It was wonderful in deed. We had to stand and watch the performance cause the place was out of room to have a seat, but I didn't regret it because it was truly a visually and content-wise very engaging; it was entertaining, it was funny, it was profound, it was thoughtful, and it was crystal clear sticked to what they wanted to transmit. It's incredible how these actors and actresses, in a beautiful way, managed to express so many delicate and complex issues that affect us today with an impressive level of detail, profesionalism and seriousness, without leaving anything out. I couldn't take my eyes away from them.
While they were performing, I was analyzing, and there are tooics their performance captured that I had even forgotten or overlooked in my critical-reflective moments, where I analyze in detail the reasons for the dysfunction of this system under which we unfortunately live and all its flaws. But above all, I ask myself, why does it continue to hold up despite all this? And why do we allow it and do nothing about it?
But anyway, that's not the point, but rather how enjoyable this weekend was for us, how much fun we had despite the tiredness from so much work and the stress associated with this and other issues.
It was truly a time of enjoyment, relaxation, and entertainment that we needed, during which we even danced like crazy. It was really fun, and I felt like sharing it, even though some details may have escaped from me and I may not have been able to illustrate everything as I would have liked or as a real writer would have been able to.
