MIAMI, United States. – José Antonio Portuondo, the political commissar who during the first years of Castroism was a key piece in destroying the poet Heberto Padillawill appear in Miami transformed into a stage character “through the power of theatrical fiction”, led by the playwright and director Carlos Celdranwho with his new work, Papier machehas put on the table what was the “fate” of another artist condemned to ostracism, the painter Antonia Eiriz.
Celdrán, who currently lives in Spain and is one of the leading directors of the Miami-based company Arca Images, he investigated the possible reasons why Antonia Eiriz (Havana, 1929- Miami, 1995) stopped painting in Cuba after the impact of the criticism exerted by the officialdom.
In an interview with CubaNetCeldrán described the intellectual Portuondo (Santiago de Cuba, 1911- Havana, 1996) as “a cultural official with a lot of power.”
“Portuondo was very critical of Antonia’s work. He repeatedly attacked her with virulence. Without a doubt it must have been for ideological and political reasons, rather than artistic ones,” said the director.
“In addition to being a renowned critic and researcher, he was also a very powerful cultural official. His pressure must have undoubtedly caused, among many other things, Antonia to withdraw from the artistic scene,” he added.
Eiriz, whose impressionist, abstract and dramatic strokes recall the strength of a painter like Edvard Munch, suspended his artistic career in 1968, after the Government of the Island described his great work as “defeatist.” A platform for democratic peacewhich was exhibited at the First National Salon of Plastic Arts.
At the same time, in 1971, after being arrested for being a “counterrevolutionary,” the poet Heberto Padilla (author of Offsidea collection of poems from 1968, the same year as Eiriz’s controversial work) offered his famous work to the officialdom mea culpaa. The meeting was chaired by José Antonio Portuondo.
For her part, the great painter and professor of fine arts took refuge in her home in Juanelo, in Saint Michael of Padronon the outskirts of Havana, and from there, surrounded by friends and the community itself, she became known as “the papier-mâché lady.”
Celdrán and the power of theatrical fiction
“For years I have dreamed of writing about her, about her work, her destiny. I have done it before with other figures that I admire from the history and art of Cuba, for example, I did it with Vicente Revuelta or with Jose Marti: approaches to the legacy of their lives with which I sought to explain, through the power of theatrical fiction, the uncertainty, the opacity of the present,” explained the director.
The playwright and founder of the Argos Teatro group in Havana clarifies that “Antonia embodies, not only through the value of her work, but through her own life as an artist, keys to understanding everything we have experienced since then.”
Asked if this is the first time Eiriz has been brought to the theatre, she replies: “At least I have reference to a text written about her. But I haven’t read it and it hasn’t been brought to the stage until now.”
According to Alexa Kuve, actress and CEO of Arca Images, Papier mache It is an “intelligent, well-written, handcrafted and detailed work.”
“The skeleton of this work is an interview in Miami between a theater director and Antonia Eiriz, in 1995, shortly before the expo (in this city) that she did not get to see,” Kuve added. CubaNet.
According to the Arca Images producer, Celdrán “humanizes” the work with “a high level of research.”
“It is still not clear why [Eiriz] He stopped painting, but everything revolves around the strong criticism he received in those years, not only from Portuondo, but also from [la crítica argentino-mexicana] Raquel Tibol”, who is another character in this production.
“I have always enjoyed commissioning his work, because it has to do with what I want to say, a theatre of truth, a naked theatre with excellent work between actors and director,” says Kuve, who has been at the head of Arca Images since 2001, about Celdrán.
The cast of Papier mache It is composed of Zulema Clares (Antonia Eiriz), Ariel Texidó (Héctor), Rosalinda Rodríguez (Raquel Tibol and also another character, that of a producer); Andy Barbosa (the young man) and Guillermo Cabré (plays Portuondo and a programmer).
This is a world premiere that can be seen at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center in downtown Miami on weekends from August 1 to 11.
Free as a director at Arca Images
Founder of Argos Teatro in the 90s, a zenith decade for Cuban theater, Carlos Celdrán had great success in Havana with his staging and particular version of Roberto Zuccothe well-known work of the French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltés.
In 2017, he brought the award-winning theater show to Miami 10 milliona sort of collective biography of Cuba in the 1970s, made up of absences and family discussions and of patriotism and collectivism, as he told this reporter during an interview. Miami was the first city where 10 million was performed outside of Cuba.
In March 2023, Celdrán directed with Arca Images the successful assembly of Thebes Landa text by the renowned Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco.
Then, exactly a year ago, it premiered at the Miami Dade County Auditorium Irona work about José Martí also produced by Arca Images. Iron It premiered in Havana, but the performances had to be interrupted due to the pandemic. COVID-19 in 2020.
Now, in his fourth collaboration with the company, he returns with a “rescue” song that will surely surprise many viewers.
“It has been a very intense journey, having achieved successes like those we have had in such a short time of collaboration. It is a company that I respect for its commitment to art theatre that defends contemporary writing. I have felt very free to make decisions as a director, something that I value very much,” said the Cuban director about Arca Images.
Like Cuban-American Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz and Arca Images co-founder Larry Villanueva, Celdrán is one of the company’s “directors in residence,” according to the company itself.
For Papier mache, Celdrán rehearsed with the actors via Zoom from Spain. Now he hopes to be able to make it to the premiere in Miami, but he is not sure. He is in the middle of a “cumbersome” visa process, the company said.
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