Backstage: La Razón Blindada
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Click here for The Rubicon Theatre's revival of LA RAZON BLINDADA
Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, Mexico, and La Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa, Mexico, with and at 24th Street Theatre
Reviewed by Jennie Webb www.backstage.com
November 04, 2010
From the opening moments of playwright-director Aristides Vargas' simple yet amazingly textured theatrical journey, we know we're not in Kansas anymore. The world of his "La Razón Blindada" ("Armored Reason"), performed in Spanish with English supertitles, is a nameless prison in a desolate land where "everything is real except reality."
We meet two prisoners, played by Jesús Castaños-Chima and Tony Duran (alternating with Arturo Diaz de Sandy), in a prolonged introduction that consists of spare but graceful movement set to music. Much is revealed in choreographed moods and glances, as the prisoners settle into what we learn is a weekly routine. On Sunday afternoons, they are permitted to sit across a table from each other and, for a short while, talk. The actors remain in their chairs—which are set on wheels—for the entire performance. The play is constructed from their time spent together, time that expands and contracts as they tell each other stories from Cervantes' "Don Quixote." Castaños-Chima plays La Mancha and Duran plays Sancho, although each actor slips in and out of many familiar characters—including Dulcinea and Don Quixote's horse and dog—brilliantly. We watch the prisoners escape into the fractured narrative and touch on madness until they go too far, then remember they're under the watchful eyes of prison guards.
Vargas' highly visual staging is captivating. Drawing from Cervantes' novel, along with Franz Kafka's story "The Truth About Sancho Panza" and testimony from prisoners (including Vargas' brother) during Argentina's dictatorship in the 1970s, "La Razón Blindada" never lets us forget the ever-present danger, the walls that surround these prisoners, nor the lengths they must go to protect themselves on all levels. The actors' hilarious characterizations are interspersed with almost balletic movements—yes, all while sitting in chairs. And although non–Spanish speakers may be at a disadvantage here, we can still appreciate the verbal interplay through the translated text (credit Guillermo Aviles-Rodriguez). This is a powerful and sometimes painful visit to a place and time that's becoming too familiar today.
Click here for 24th ST's latest show
Click here for The Rubicon Theatre's revival of LA RAZON BLINDADA