Guadalupe años sin cuenta
I saw this play Friday night, even though it’s going to be part of el Festival de Teatro Alternativo, FESTA 2018, which I’m here to see, I thought I’d get started early and free up some time on schedule, which is for me is already full.
It turns out that this play was originally created collectively in 1975 by Teatro Candelaria, and directed by Santiago Garcia, and became part of the company’s repertory. (There are some very interesting YouTube videos about the play, although I haven’t been able to find a complete video of the original cast, except this one that seems to require a version of Flash that no longer works.
Anyway, it’s the tale of Guadalupe Salcedo, a leader of a band of Liberal fighters during La Violencia. Despite being abandoned and ignored by the Liberal Party elites in Bogotá, Guadalupe’s group fought with great success against the Conservative bands in the Eastern plains of Colombia, and later (especially after the military coup which supposedly ended La Violencia), against the Colombian Army. He was killed by government forces in 1957, under circumstances about which there are conflicting accounts. The play tells the story of Guadalupe Salcedo in a folkloric style, with skits and songs.
Although this production was performed in the Teatro Candelaria, it was actually by Tramaluna Teatro, a younger group. It was directed, however, by Patricia Ariza, one of the original actors—and authors—of the play, and the current leader of Teatro Candelaria. It was great to see a classic of experimental and collective theatre being passed on to a new generation. On the night I attended, many of the cast of the original production were also in attendance, and joined the Tramaluna cast onstage to reprise the final song.
