Love, life and ‘guayaca’ identity are the premise in a play performed by Andrés Crespo and María Ortega

The death of a renowned Ecuadorian artist becomes the trigger for two beings —with a love story in the past— meet again after 30 years. A tribute to the memory of a character who has traveled to the afterlife unites this pair in a theater dressing room. It’s about the work night of the cricketsinterpreted by Andres Crespo Y Mary Ortegaand directed by Daniel Llanos.

In the play, she is a consecrated writer in Europe and he is a famous Latin American singer of romantic music who in this reunion discover how their way of seeing life and feeling has transformed over the years, leaving that genuine look behind. Their meeting reveals the true nature of their teenage relationship and takes a melancholy look back at the lives of each of them, leaving no flicker of humor aside.

“It is a work like life: no life is a single thing, no person only laughs or only cries, or only suffers, or only questions”, Ortega maintains, in an interview with this newspaper. She explains that this reunion has sad, hard, funny parts and many memories.

Ortega describes her character as a complex woman who needs to think about everything and who, on certain occasions, talks too much. “Even superficiality takes on a deep tinge, due to the way she thinks about it, analyzes it, lives it. She is an intense woman, who feels a lot of passion for what she does and who has had to make strong decisions in life.”, details.

Meanwhile, Crespo defines his character as a Guayaquil bolero player who highly values ​​his city. “He is a man who really likes his environment. He is a person who has no particular desire to travel, other than to sing. The rest of the time, He is a person who greatly enjoys his popularity and the work he has done in Guayaquil. He has a great attachment to the city, and on that he bases his art, his music; That’s what your identity is based on.“, mentions.

And this precisely tackles the play, that constant exploration of the identity that the characters propose to understand who they are. “Identity is not something that one proclaims or manifests, but rather I feel that it is something that one seeks. It is a path in which we Guayaquil find ourselves, on that path to build it, and that cannot happen if we do not transform our reality.”, Crespo mentions.

In addition to that political touch with which the characters reflect on some details of the city. “It also has to do with the way the city is managed, the gaps and the future of the city”, adds the actor.

The name of the work —among other things— refers to the inevitable invasion of crickets that floods the winters of Guayaquil, their particular sound and their smell the next day. In addition, it is the title of one of the protagonist’s books.

For Ortega and Crespo, the issue of reunions is not new: they have known each other since childhood through the friendship between their parents. “With María, who left Guayaquil at the age of 18, we met once at the age of 35 in Paris, due to the death of a relative; and then we met in Guayaquil, due to the death of another family member”, says the actor.

night of the crickets is presented in the Third room of Sanchez Aguilar Theater, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in May at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $20. (YO)