"Teatro Visión is honored to be paying homage to the comedic style and life of Mexican icon Mario Moreno, better known as ¡Cantinflas!. Herbert Sigüenza of the troupe Culture Clash wrote and will be starring in his play about the legend of Mexican cinema who won over audiences worldwide with his brand of unique physical comedy and social satire. Using flashbacks stemming from a 1993 interview, ¡Cantinflas! will have you doubling over your seat in laughter from the universal comedy and hilarious dance routines that illustrate the comedy and genius of the man Charlie Chaplin once called the greatest comic ever born.
This show will be presented bilingually in English and Spanish."
Bay Area Arts was having a theatre appreciation day where theatres were opening up their seats for free. My eyes lit up being the theatre freak that I am and FREE is always happy news, so I click to the site and aside from a children's production of some magic flute, "Cantinflas" is the only show left with tix.
I read the above description and think, sounds interesting. A Mexican Charlie Chaplin eh? Reserved my two free tix and the day rolls around (yesterday) and my art appreciation buddy happens to be in socal, making me realize that I need more artsy fartsy friends in norcal. i wonder how you meet those. harhar (imagination running wild).
after several calls and jokes about my art eccentricities (mexican charlie chaplin?!), I end up dragging my sister there, speeding to make it to the 8 o'clock show. We sit down 5 minutes into the show, and realize all the actors are speaking in super fast SPANISH.
and there's no translator. no subtitles. an "american reporter" speaks in english for brief periods and that's the extent of "presented bilingually in English and Spanish." O_o
at first i tried to translate what i could for my sister, but all i was going off of was one quarter of spanish and a month in south america. so there'd be long rapid conversations in spanish, and me translating what i knew every 10 seconds: "face.... never... hat... cut..." then half the audience bursts out laughing and we're sitting there clueless.
and i say only half, because i think half the people in that theatre were in the same boat as us. anyways, after a while, we just gave up trying to translate and had fun joking about our situation. my sister kept laughing loudly whenever the spanish-speaking part of the audience laughed and i was trying to stifle my laughter and chastise her at the same time. heh.
from what i could gauge, it was a beautifully simple play and the jokes were very clever (the ones said in english). AND the kulest part, i got a glimpse of a chicano cultural enclave that i never knew existed in south san jose. the theatre, small cafes, restaurants, etc. it's like our mini koreatown/street here, but it's so easy to live in that limited sphere and forget that those spheres exist for so many other rich cultures. or you never think to step into that other sphere until someone leads you there and guides you through the foreign customs, language and food.
that was one of my favorite things about LA: the diversity and richness of culture. but it still doesn't beat the natural serenity of norcal. :) ok. enough gabbing for today. errands time!
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