Theatre in Venezuela

On my last night while I was on vacation in Venezuela for Spring Break I had an epiphany. As a young child I had always avoided the Venezuelan theater thinking that it was a joke compared to productions in Broadway and London. Shame on me.

I was standing in line at the movie theater with my girlfriend to buy tickets for "The King's Speech" when a young man carrying a radio headset approached us and kindly asked us if we were interested in watching the production that was playing just across the movie theater. We both looked at each other hesitantly (we both wanted to watch that movie very badly), but then he sweetened the deal when he said that the tickets were complimentary because the couple they were intended for didn't show, and they needed to get them off their hands. We were in.

We both strongly enjoy theater, hell, I'm studying it. But I didn't know what to expect. Could these guys really put up a show?

They certainly could. The play was called "Baraka," translated from "Cloaca," a play that opened in London in 2004 and was directed by Kevin Spacey. The show had rave reviews, so I sat down and enjoyed the show.

Everything was obviously scaled down to what I was used to. After seeing shows in grand theaters in  Broadway and the West End, this production was held in a small auditorium-like proscenium theater. The set was obviously not elaborate or stuck to the ground since several productions share the stage.

This wasn't an issue. The acting was unbelievable. Some of the best I have ever seen. And the script was translated so perfectly to fit the Venezuelan audience, but without sacrificing any of the artistic or dramatic purposes written by Dutch writer, Maria Goos.

The story follows four very different middle-aged men. A homosexual who works for the mayorship, a soon-to-be minister for the government, a theater director and a cocaine-addicted lawyer. Together they play out of each other the deepest emotions that the average Venezuelan is afraid to express.

Running a little over two hours, and with no intermission, the play did feel long, but was well worth it. It was an eye-opening experience that will now motivate me to attend to the theater in other places of the world beside english-speaking countries.