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2013 |
THE MAGIC OF THEATER |
2014 |
23rd
Season
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A starting point for taking a look at the blindness that is brought on by passion
and perhaps for reflecting on what love really is... In this amusing comedy,
far from Buenos Aires, in the Turkish desert... What will this odd trio come upon?
...A place where guilt will no longer haunt them? |
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DC Metro Theater Arts,
by Diane Jackson Schnoor |
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DC Theatre Scene,
by Rosalind Lacy |
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VOA Voz de América,
by Mitzi Macias |
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Washington Post,
by Celia Wren |
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DC Metro Theater Arts |
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‘Tango Turco (Turkish Tango)’ |
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Tango Turco (Turkish Tango) is a fascinating play, veering from soapy and melodramatic to thoughtful and philosophical. Argentinian playwright Del Autor’s strange but oddly likeable play is being brought vividly to life at Teatro de la Luna by Director Mario Marcel and his team of three talented actors (Alfredo Sánchez, Marcela Ferlito, and Jerry Daniel).
Tango Turco begins with a crime and explores how the guilt
of committing that crime engulfs the pair of lovers on the
run. Rudolfo (Alfredo Sánchez) and Amelia (Marcela Ferlito)
flee their native Argentina and attempt to escape their past
on a comic flight through Spain, France, Italy, Yugoslavia,
Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco. Along the way, the pick up a
“Turkish” guitar player named Yassuf (Jerry Daniel), a
native of Lebanon fleeing from his own past. Without giving
plot points away, suffice it to say that the presence of the
non-Spanish speaking Yassuf adds layers of comedy and
complication to the plight of the couple on the run from the
international police.
All three actors deliver over-the-top, energetic, and
acutely-timed performances of mostly one-note characters.
Marcela Ferlito manages to imbue the sometimes unlikeable
Amelia with warmth and passion through her cheeky line
delivery and highly animated facial expressions. She is a
force of nature. Alfredo Sánchez gives a solid performance
as Rodolfo, veering from well-executed over-the-top
slapstick comedy to thoughtful delivery of some of the most
sensitive monologues of the evening. Jerry Daniel steals the
show as the non-Spanish speaking Yassuf, most hilariously in
a scene without words when he discovers the Argentinian
lovers in flagrante.
Although the show is performed entirely in Spanish, the
overhead subtitles combined with strong body language makes
this modern comedy accessible and easy to enjoy for Spanish
and English speakers alike. Teatro de la Luna recommends the
show for mature audiences (ages 15 and older) due to risqué
humor, adult themes, profanity and strong sexual innuendo.
Director Marcel’s set design is spare but, with the help of
projections, effectively conveys the trio’s flight from
country to country. The lighting and sound design by Brian
Allard and Mario Marcel respectively effectively serve the
actors and the plot. Rosita Bécker and Nucky Walder deserve
great credit for creating costumes and props that creatively
suggested each country and absurd situation without going
over the top.
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes, with one
intermission.
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DC Theatre
Scene |
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Washington’s Liveliest Theatre Website |
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"LaTango Turco (Turkish Tango)" |
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There’s an old adage, “What goes around comes around,”
that’s apt for Argentine playwright Rafael Bruza’s play. But
you have to give yourself up and really believe in what you
are seeing enacted before you.
As directed by Mario Marcel, Tango Turco makes sense to a
point. Two cabaret tango singers, Amelia, (Marcela Ferlito),
and Rodolfo, (Alfredo Sanchez), sing passionately about
passion in Argentine nightclubs. They want their sexual
liaison out in the open. The way Amelia tells it, the
performers dreamt of what life would be like together if she
wasn’t married. So while Amelia files her nails, Rodolfo
shoots and kills her husband in the garage. We hear it
happen off-stage in the opening scene. It’s like a pop gun
going off, nothing shattering. Cool, calm and collected,
Rodolfo describes it as if it’s an impersonal, drive-by
shooting. Then Amelia and Rodolfo talk quietly about
dismembering, bagging and burying the body, to eradicate any
trace of evidence. Will they get away with murder?
Bravo and brava to Teatro de la Luna for taking the risk to
bring us this avant garde comedy of Latin American theatre.
Rafael Bruza is the same playwright who gave us the madcap
comedy Gentlemen’s Club (Club de Caballeros) last season.
Bruza writes in a signature style that can be defined as
Theatre of the Grotesque– reality pushed to extremes, to the
point of comic absurdity. But here, in Tango Turco, Bruza
goes further and combines real life romance and horror, to
get us to think about the difference between love and
passion.
Tango Turco is a challenging, deeply philosophical play,
based on the “milonguita,” that is a typical tango dance,
that represents pure blind passion. Because of the murder
and the fact that the lovers left the dismembered body
dripping with blood in bags on a public sidewalk, Amelia and
Rodolfo have to run for their lives. To flee the country,
the two tango singers go on a performing tour of Europe that
sidetracks into the Middle East, Northern Africa and Egypt.
Along the way, they pick up an accompanist, Yussef, a
Lebanese. The trio develop a symbiotic relationship.
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VOA Voz de América |
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‘Tango Turco: Sin baile, pero con pasión’ |
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El
Teatro de La Luna lleva a las tablas una comedia
de |
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humor negro donde sus personajes se funden por la pasión. |
Tres personajes en escena, todos diferentes entre sí,
pero que finalmente se funden en un torrente de
sentimientos liderados por la pasión y las culpas que
remuerden las conciencias más inocentes.
De esta manera podemos sintetizar lo que representa
“Tango turco”, la comedia de humor negro que el Teatro
de La Luna presenta sobre las tablas.
“Tango turco” es una historia de amor, pasión,
destierros y persecuciones que más que físicas se
convierten en presiones y temores internos que pueden
llevar a transformarte en presa de la paranoia.
Gracias al texto del dramaturgo argentino Rafael Bruza,
el director Mario Marcel logra desenmarañar la
complejidad del conflicto interno que trabaja el
dramaturgo en “Tango turco” bajo el apellido de comedia
de humor negro.
Amelia, interpretado por Marcela Ferlito, es la imagen
encarnizada de la mujer apasionada, pero al mismo tiempo
egoísta, decidida a hacer lo que tenga que hacer para
lograr sus propósitos.
"Bruza desarrolla muchos temas sicológicos con gran
humor como es la pasión, la infidelidad, la huída, la persecusión, el egoismo humano, entre otros", dijo a la
Voz de América, Marcela Ferlito.
Bajo ese carácter logra someter a su amante, Rodolfo,
Alfredo Sánchez, que finalmente arrastrado por el amor
de una mujer, es capaz de entregar su tranquilidad
mental para convertirse en un asesino que busca
justificar sus acciones bajo el título de amante
incondicional, pero ocultando también intereses y
codicias personales.
El alma de “Tango turco” recae en la representación del
“Turco” Yassuf, interpretado por Jerry Daniel. A sus
expensas, la comedia fluye por la sencillez con la que
construye el personaje de un turco que por su pasión a
la música se logra unir a la pareja conformada por
Amelia y Rodolfo para presentar un espectáculo de Tango,
donde el baile está ausente, pero la música y la pasión
que representa este género se mantiene de principio a
fin.
“Turco vende barato” dentro de la obra pone de
manifiesto la existencia de clichés en una sociedad
donde como te ven te tratan y sin quererlo te clasifican
dentro de un grupo al que muchas veces no perteneces.
Esta pieza de humor negro capaz de arrancarle más de una
carcajada y al mismo tiempo reflexionar sobre la
intensidad de algunas pasiones en el ser humano estará
en cartelera en el área metropolitana de Washington
hasta el 18 de mayo.
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Washington Post |
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‘Tango Turco (Turkish Tango)’ |
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at Gunston Arts Center chronicles a couple’s
travels |
How many globe-trotting romances are as painful as
Amelia and Rodolfo’s? After an unfortunate incident in
their native Argentina, the two lovers flee first to
Europe, then to the Middle East, seeking to make their
living as tango performers. But they can’t help
squabbling, and Rodolfo believes Interpol is on their
heels. It’s enough to make sights like the Sphinx and
Eiffel Tower a gloomy proposition.
Unfortunately, the play that chronicles the couple’s
travels — “Tango Turco (Turkish Tango)” by Argentinian
playwright Rafael Bruza — isn’t a lot of fun either. The
current Teatro de la Luna production features Marcela
Ferlito, an actress who was bracingly funny in the
company’s recent comedy “La Vida Que Me Das . . .
y no me alcanza” (“Such a Life You’ve Given Me . . .
and it’s not enough”). But Ferlito can’t rescue this
low-energy “Tango Turco,” which is staged by Teatro
artistic and executive director Mario Marcel and billed
as a U.S. premiere. (It is performed in Spanish with
English surtitles.)
Part of the problem may be the script’s episodic nature:
Short scenes relay glimpses of Amelia (Ferlito) and
Rodolfo (Alfredo Sanchez) in different countries, as the
pair quarrel, worry, and get to know Yassuf (Jerry
Daniel), the guitarist they hired in Seville to be their
accompanist. (They had sought a player of the bandoneon,
the accordion-like instrument that is a staple of tango
music, but bandoneonists were in short supply in Spain.)
The frequent scene breaks prevent the production from
working up much momentum. With photographic slides of
international sites and attractions (the Sphinx, etc.)
projected onto a screen at the back of the set (the
scenery is otherwise dominated by chairs and tables),
it’s almost as if the play were communicating by
postcard.
The scene breaks, and the gaps in narrative time between
the scenes, also contrive to distance us from the
characters. The most interesting of these is Amelia, who
can be animated and funny — when she’s bickering with or
coolly snubbing Rodolfo, for instance — but who displays
some soulfulness in a long monologue about love.
(Amelia’s outfits, including a little black dress and
auburn shrug, seem the right choices for this capable
femme-fatale character.
Sanchez exudes some excitability, paranoia and
moroseness as Rodolfo — a none-too-pleasant fellow who
enjoys making fun of Yassuf for not knowing Spanish and
not being of European heritage. (Yassuf hails from
Lebanon, but Rodolfo insists on calling him a “Turk”;
hence the play’s title.) As Yassuf, Daniel looks a
little more awkward onstage than seems necessary for
purposes of characterization.
Would that Yassuf would really break out into some
fluent guitar music now and then! He doesn’t. Such a
detail might make this “Tango Turco” a little more
melodious.
By Rafael Bruza. Direction and set and sound design by Mario Marcel; lighting design, Brian S. Allard; assistant director, Paolo Gonzalez. About 1 hour and 45 minutes. In Spanish with English surtitles (English translation, David Bradley, and Rei Berroa’s students at George Mason University). Tickets: $15-$35. Through May 18 at Gunston Arts Center, Theater Two, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington, Va. Call 703-548-3092 or visit www.teatrodelaluna.org
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TICKETS |
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Regular |
Desc. |
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Thursday
8PM |
$15 |
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Friday 8PM |
$35 |
$30 |
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Saturday 8PM |
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Sunday 3PM |
$25 |
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Desc.: Students & |
| Senior Citizens (60+) |
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Thursday 4/24
(8PM) |
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Friday
4/25 (8PM) |
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Saturday
4/26
(8PM) |
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"Luna Night"
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Fundraising Night |
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General Admission
$40 |
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Sunday
4/27
(3PM) |
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Thursday 5/1
(8PM) |
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Friday
5/2
(8PM) |
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Saturday
5/3
(8PM) |
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Sunday
5/4
(3PM) |
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Thursday 5/8 (8PM) |
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Friday
5/9 (8PM) |
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Saturday
5/10 (8PM) |
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Sunday
5/11
(3PM) |
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Thursday 5/15 (8PM) |
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Friday
5/16
(8PM) |
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Saturday
5/17 (8PM) |
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Sunday
5/18
(3PM) |
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