'Antony and Cleopatra' Celestial mix of love and power
After an hour and a half of refreshing humor, Pablo Carbonell culminates
Mercado de amores
addressing the audience of the Roman Theater of Mérida, spitting out the emblematic phrase "Nobody is perfect", in an explicit nod to Billy Wilder's masterpiece,
Con faldas ya lo loco.
. This epilogue of the third premiere of the Mérida contest thus seeks an obvious affiliation: entanglements, playful dialogues, provocations, confusing situations, unforgettable characters such as the transvestite Carino (played by
Víctor Ullate Roche
) follow each other to make the viewer smile. That's what the Latin comedy consisted of, just like the film starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis: if not, in general, it deals with the most rabid current issues.
Love Market
speaks of the struggle for independence of virtuous women, capable at that time of traveling and negotiating with merchants in Athens or Rhodes, but also of confronting and emerging victorious from the male power of the time.
Also, of endemic problems such as sexual abuse and political corruption.
In this case,
the plot revolves around the attempted purchase of senators in the Republic of Rome to promote urban interests
.
There is laughter -not abrupt laughter-, irony and a game of complicity, which culminates in the physical approach of the protagonists to the public in search of
feedback
.
there is also time for reflection, analysis, criticism or rebellion against injustice: "Can you even buy love?"
Carbonell - singer, humorist and actor from Cádiz who debuted last night in the Mérida arena - represents Pánfilo, a rich unscrupulous Roman merchant - who seeks his identity throughout the play, constantly torn between good and evil. As a bird of prey, he offers up to 10,000 silver talents to each of the 15 senators needed to support his urban change, which will make him even richer.
Despite his lustful and corrupt agenda, Pánfilo has enough space to discover the path of love,
endangering even his greatest treasure as a pledge of love: his vineyards in Naples. In his representation, and faithful to his career, Carbonell feels comfortable in certain tics that he introduces during the work, such as when he imitates the singer Francisco with a mixture of short jokes where he still remembers Mariano Rajoy.
The work, written by Eduardo Galán, merges three original manuscripts (
El mercader; Cásina
and
La comedia de los asnos
) by the prolific Plauto, author of 130 comedies. And it maintains its spirit: buffoons, rogues, crazy young men, courtesans, pimps or slaves more intelligent and, of course, much healthier in spirit than their masters. All of them with the same and only purpose: to
make the public smile
with unexpected and surprising twists, based on constant word games. The piece directed by Marta Torres achieves its end. Without major pretensions than to represent a light summer comedy, without wanting to compete, neither in quality nor in substance, with other premieres. Of course:
love market no
I would bear the comparisons with other great comedies, of much more weight, premiered in previous editions at this Festival (without going any further,
Plauto's
Los Gemelos
), but that is not the debate now.
With a sober scenography and costumes, the secondary youngsters José Saiz (Olimpión) and Víctor Ullate Roche shine above all, and the solvent role of the veteran Francisco Vidal (Leónidas), plus the freshness of Ania Hernández (Erostía) and Esther Toledano (Tais), within a plot that shows the confrontation between father and daughter by the same woman who is actually an attractive slave dressed as a woman. Very funny entanglements grow out there, which was the only thing - and it is not a small thing - what it was about. In the end, Plautus, after verifying that his most profound works had little success, ended up giving the public -through texts with mixtures of Greek comedies- what they wanted: fun, mockery or rejoicing ... He already said it the Latin comedian: "Laugh at yourselves because with it you will be better people."
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