Carlos Giménez and `El Coronel`: “Powerful Tale Of An Individual`s Struggle Emerges In `El Coronel`” / by Richard Christiansen, Chief critic, The Chicago Tribune, June 03, 1992


"For all that, it is not a glum or boring stage piece, thanks to the theatrical imagination of Carlos Gimenez, 
who adapted the 1957 novella and directed it for his company, Fundacion Rajatabla of Caracas. 
The overriding atmosphere of the production is that of a dream, a stylized panorama in which an angel 
of death, bearing an umbrella against the rain,  becomes a recurrent symbol."


``No One Writes to the Colonel,`` the Venezuelan production being presented here for the International Theatre Festival, opens with a crack of thunder, a swirl of rain, and a silent funeral procession marching solemnly across the stage.
In this highly ritualistic adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez`s novella, being staged through Sunday at the Steppenwolf Theatre, the sense of futility and dreariness in the backwater town of a remote, forsaken land is immediately established.
Even when the rain machine is not in action, there is an aura of dank, sweaty despair in the air. Rotting humidity seems to be everywhere as characters swat the mosquitoes that buzz around them and drench themselves in cold water in order to avoid the paralyzing heat.
The skeletal colonel of the title and his birdlike wife are two creatures on the verge of extinction, their bodies wracked with hunger and various ugly physical ailments. Their home is a hut of corrugated steel, their furnishings consist of little more than a hammock, a bed and a few rickety chairs.
Still in mourning over the death of their only son, killed while he was handing out political leaflets, the colonel and his wife are slowly starving to death. Down to his last few pesos, the colonel waits in vain for a pension promised to him 15 years ago for his services in the civil war. The only hope for him is to sell his son`s prize cockfighting rooster to the town`s diabetic, bloated political boss, but he is reluctant to part with the bird because it symbolizes a pride he does not want to sell off.
``El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escribe`` (its Spanish title) is an unusually dark and grim work by Garcia Marquez, Kafkaesque in its presentation of a nightmarish force that is strangling the helpless individual.
For all that, it is not a glum or boring stage piece, thanks to the theatrical imagination of Carlos Gimenez, who adapted the 1957 novella and directed it for his company, Fundacion Rajatabla of Caracas.
The overriding atmosphere of the production is that of a dream, a stylized panorama in which an angel of death, bearing an umbrella against the rain, becomes a recurrent symbol.
It`s a dream landscape, pierced by church bells and illuminated by bursts of lightning, that contracts and expands through the corrugated partitions that are silently swiveled about by the actors in order to enclose a room in the colonel`s home or open up the whole stage.
One doesn`t need a translation to appreciate the inventiveness of the staging, nor, for that matter, does one need to be a slave to the flat, simultaneous English translation of the Spanish dialogue that comes over the headsets handed out by the ushers.
The best strategy in absorbing this short, 90-minute work is to arrive a little early and spend a few minutes reading the synopsis printed in the program. With that general guideline in mind, one can follow the action without distraction.
The acting by the 15-member ensemble is well worth one`s attention.
Aura Rivas, as the colonel`s wife, is a small, stiff little thing, clucking over her troubles and pecking about the house in her misery.
Jose Tejera as the beleaguered colonel, on the other hand, is a scarecrow figure of battered dignity, his lean, grizzled face marked with a drooping mustache and his body clad in ill-fitting black suit and scuffed shoes.
When, at play`s end, he sinks slowly to the ground under the weight of his misery, he becomes, through the power of his physical presence, a figure of great sorrow and great endurance.


`EL CORONEL NO TIENE QUIEN LE ESCRIBE`
A play adapted by Carlos Gimenez from the novella by Gabriel Garcia Marquez;
directed by Gimenez, with scenery and costumes by Rafael Reyeros, lighting by Jose Jimenez and Reyeros, and music by Federico Ruiz. A production of Fundacion Rajatabla of Venezuela, presented by the International Theatre Festival of Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St. Opened Tuesday and plays again at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Running time: 1:30. Tickets are $26 to $32, with discounts available for students and groups. Phone 312-644-3378.

THE CAST

Coronel                            Jose Tejera
Coronel`s wife                  Aura Rivas
Sabas                              Anibal Grunn
Post Office Employee       Francisco Alfaro
Doctor                                       Daniel Lopez
Lawyer                             Pedro Pineda
Alvaro                              Aitor Gaviria
German                           Erich Wilpret
Alfonso                             Jesus Araujo
Sabas` wife                      Pilar Romero
With Norman Santana, Gabriel Flores, Alejandro Faillace, Jose Sanchez, Rolando Jimenez.
Simultaneous translation by Jorge Busot.  


By Richard Christiansen

Chief critic

June 03, 1992|


Original Source: The Chicago Tribune