- Almudena Crespo
It's the experimental theater piece from Argentina that opened last night, runs through Sunday, and sounds amazing.
From the OTB synopsis:
Itâs 1999 in Buenos Aires. Mario, Laura, Pablo, and Vicky are in their mid-twenties and ready for careers, love, and adulthood. Over the next decade, Argentinaâs economy will collapse and their lives will take a series of unexpected turns. In this fast-paced, multilayered âmega fiction,â director Mariano Pensotti deftly unfolds the lives of these 4 characters....Mariano Pensotti, a young director and writer based in Argentina, has become one of the most noted experimental directors throughout the world. His unique sets and depictions of life are told with a filmic sensibility honed in years studying cinema at the Dramatic Arts Instituto Universitario Nacional de Artes.
From the recent New York Times review:
The Argentine writer and director Mariano Pensotti sets multiple stories in motion in his smart and smartly staged play âEl Pasado Es un Animal Grotesco." And they really are in motion: the circular plywood stage, divided into four compartments, revolves constantly (and slowly â you wonât feel seasick), as episodes from the lives of four characters are acted out. Their stories cinematically unspool and overlap as time moves onward and even occasionally backward....âEl Pasado Es un Animal Grotescoâ considers the way we talk about our lives, the way they become fictions, and then fictions become our pasts â and how alien that can start to feel.
Full info on the On the Boards shows here.