The theater group La Cuarta Pared Argentina visits Ecuador to offer a season of the theatrical play the jokera DC Films movie-themed adaptation joker (2019), with the direction and script of Guillermo Ale. This will be presented on April 22, 23 and 24 in the auditorium of the cc Alhambra (via Samborondón) at 7:30 p.m.; on the 28th and 29th it will be at the Quito Chamber of Commerce.
In the leading role is the actor Horace Rafart, who explains that the transfer from the cinematographic experience to the theater has been “laborious”, since personally he is not a fan of superhero movies. “I went to see (joker) without any prejudice, and I was very touched by the fact that Hollywood is dealing with the story of a loser. The good ones always win, the cute ones, and this one was a loser.”
This, says Rafart, gives the initial kick to start rethinking things. “I was hooked on the subject of mental health. Shortly after seeing it, the pandemic came and transformed us all. At the level of mental health, we are still not clear about what is going to happen. I think over the years a lot of that damage will be revealed. I have seen many people who said they were normal, that everything was fine, in devastating anguish processes.”
The actor (and the play) wonders what is the role of States and societies with respect to people who are left behind. “People who have mental problems are left aside, as if to say: ‘Well, this one is crazy.’ Friends or relatives who are upset are circled around and left alone, and that’s what the film proposes, ”he considers.
Added to this is the way medication is seen in mental illness. “Drugs are penalized when talking about addictions, but we are living in a society that takes all kinds of drugs, that self-medicates, that takes pills to get up, pills to go to bed, pills to have sex and not to get depressed; we’re also a very heavy drinking society: a lot of terrible things that we take as normal. So, to what extent are we in our right mind?”
Social coexistence is sick, summarizes Rafart, “but he self-medicates” with what he finds. “In itself, I feel that we are all abandoned.” Society, he believes, belongs to a few, “and in the middle we are all the crazy ones on the loose, only we find out later, when bad things happen, and then we say: ‘Look what he did, but it seemed that he was fine‘”.
The cinema and the theater, in the case of joker Y the jokerare a sign thatthe crazy ones have been warning and have been asking for help for a long time”, says the actor. This is what happens with Arthur, who is cornered by the world around him; he takes away her medication, her attention, her job, her family, until she comes to a violent exit.
In the adaptation of The Fourth Wall, the character worked by the writer and director and the actors says: “If you let yourself be trampled, you went.” The film, Rafart clarifies, was a trigger, but all the theatrical text is from the group, constituting a work that can be considered very Latin American.
“During the season we did in Lima many people approached us to speak and told us: ‘I see myself in this situation. I see myself on this medication. I don’t find meaning in life’”. They identified with a theatrical character that was built from a movie, but from which they necessarily distanced themselves later.
“That’s the biggest job, getting away from the film, because we didn’t want to photocopy or anything like that. We use this character in other issues, more ours, not so Hollywood. The big challenge was trying to break away from the movie and stay with our own Joker.”.
La Cuarta Pared is a group with 30 years of experience, which has worked on traditional stages, but also in prisons and psychiatric institutes, with the slogan of interviewing people, taking testimonies. Many of these, says Rafart, are part of the body of works.
“We travel a lot; we like to see things and experience them: everything we are saying is because we went through it at a certain moment. This is a Joker that you will not see in the movie. They are totally different languages.” For example, says the actor, the continuous drama of the film’s 122 minutes cannot be sustained in the theater. To give the public rest, La Cuarta Pared’s bet has humor, constant ups and downs. “The character is bipolar; then, he goes from laughter to depression to hell quickly. At shows, people laugh a lot and suddenly end up crying”.
Can they forget the movie? It’s one of the possibilities. There is no heroism in this adaptation for the stage. “He is totally humanized. We haven’t even worked on him as a hero or as a villain, but as an ordinary person, those who walk among us, to whom society doesn’t give a way out. We are in a world that does not give us a way out”, emphasizes Rafart, “we all need help: alone we are not going to save any of us, but together”.
The inputs for the function the joker in Guayaquil can be purchased at TicketShow.com.ec. Prices range from $35 to $45. (AND)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
