Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Trilogy of Medieval Women

I arrived to Ida Green on a rainy Friday at 7:00 p.m. We had to wait outside before being let in. When I walked in I was told to sit in the reserved section if I didn't speak spanish. I was unfortunately the one who had 6 wires with two or three splicers lying across my lap so that everyone in my row could hear the english translation of the play. The translator was saying stupid stuff like "learn a language" and "_____'s class is easy, take it", while we waited for the play to begin.
As far as the play went, the actors were very passionate and the younger girl came from the back of the theatre and down the center aisle, trying to scare those audience members in the aisle seats. I wasn't really sure what was going on throughout the play because the actors on stage were being so passionate and loud and I was trying to take that in while listening to some guy whisper a translation through my headphones. It was a distracting task which I felt took away from the experience of the play. I eventually took off my headphones periodically in order to listen to the play itself. I eventually really didn't have any idea what was going on but felt like I would rather not know what was going on than try to listen to a whispering translation of a rather dramatic performance.
Basically, this play was a journey through the three cultures in Spanish Middle Ages: the Christian Hispania, The Moorish Al-Andalus, and the Jewish Sefarad. It was written by Antonia Bueno. In the first culture, it tells a story about a woman who managed to become the ruler of the Spanish Empire in the 11th century. The second culture is about a medieval moorish girl and how she connects with an African girl trying to escape from a life without hope. It shows an attitude towards problems such as immigration and racism. The last culture is a backward travel through the Jewish culture, guided by her protagonist. The audience witnesses the terrible stories of six Jewish women who had to fight to survive in a world, inhuman and cruel to those who were different.

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2 Comments:

At 4:43 PM, Blogger jon weems said...

I am curious why you felt the translation provied took so much away from the actual show. I wasn't able to sit in the translation section and I thought that I missed out. After you took off the headphones did you learn anything abot the importance of tone (no matter the language)? It was interesting to me that I could tell when the actresses broke character even though I couldn't understand what they were saying. Was it the tone that made you use the word passionate in your meditation or the acting?

 
At 6:52 PM, Blogger Brad said...

It was both the tone they were using as well as the acting that made me feel that the actors were very passionate in this play. It was their gestures and loud tone that made it passionate.

 

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