GALA Hispanic Theatre has proven its ability to faithfully handle the serious, poetic works of Federico Garcia Lorca, for instance in its production of “Blood Wedding” in 2008. This year, they are showing another side of Lorca, with his layered, incisive comedy “El Retablillo de Don Cristobal” (“The Farce of Don Cristobal and the Maiden Rosita”).
‘El Retablillo de Don Cristobal’ (‘The Farce of Don Cristobal and the Maiden Rosita’)
Where: GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW
When: 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; through May 2
Info: $20 to $36; 800-494-8497; galatheatre.org; In Spanish with English surtitles
Written and produced in the early 1930s, “Don Cristobal” is unique in that it is a puppet play, using actors as characters as well as three sizes of puppets to portray those same characters. The play is performed in front of an old-fashioned puppet theater cart on wheels. The biggest puppets (about waist-high on their handlers) appear before the cart. Two doors in the front of the cart open to reveal smaller table puppets. On top of the cart is a flat surface allowing for the smallest hand puppets to play out their miniature drama. All the puppets are manipulated by actors, who also speak for them.
But although the play uses puppets, it’s anything but a children’s show. Beneath its superficial story of a buffoonish old man, Cristobal (Angel Torres), who lusts after the young, not-so-innocent maiden Rosita (Belen Oyola-Rebaza), is a more serious tale of real-life villains, who represent corruption and the exploitation of the poor and powerless.
In fact, “Don Cristobal” was performed during the Spanish Civil War for the entertainment of the Republican (anti-Franco) troops and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of American volunteers who fought with them. Beneath the laughter at the brutish Cristobal’s inability to control the independent Rosita was a subtle message about the potential fall of a cruel dictator.
Co-directed by Argentinian director Adhemar Bianchi and his daughter, Ximena Bianchi, the play begins at an International Brigade base camp in the Spanish countryside, where two American soldiers from the Lincoln Brigade reminisce about home. One (Tricia Homer) is writing a letter, the other (Mattias Kraemer) strumming a guitar. The sound of cannon fire can be heard in the distance. Soon they are joined by the Spanish soldiers, who celebrate in song their determination to end the tyranny that oppresses them. Then the cart is wheeled in and the show-within-a-show begins.
The Bianchis keep the action brisk and smooth, using the puppets to continually alter the focus onstage. Sometimes a puppet will speak, disappear and be instantly replaced by his or her actor/character onstage in front of the cart. The directors also successfully weave together the two threads of the play, as the actors in the story of Cristobal and Rosita periodically step out of character and become passionate freedom fighters, commenting on the gains and losses of the war. The strength of this production is the intense contrast between the frame of the drama — the bloody reality of war — and the tomfoolery of the puppet play.
In addition to the vision of the Bianchis, this production succeeds through the merits of its talented ensemble: Mel Rocher, Oscar Ceville, Torres, Oyola-Rebaza and Alicia Tessari Neiman are powerful in their “Don Cristobal” roles. Like the other cast members, they are also impressive singers when in “soldier” mode. Throughout “Don Cristobal,” music is never treated as a superficial element. The stirring, passionate songs devoted to liberty and justice — particularly the rousing folk tune “Ay, Carmela” — are essential elements of this moving, unconventional production.
