Friday, October 25, 1996
THEATER:
Mexico’s Teatro Tinglado gives ‘make believe’ to grown-upsBy
Simon Dunstan
Daily Bruin Contributor
Most college students remember watching "The Muppet Show" every
week and thinking that the characters like Kermit the Frog, Miss
Piggy and Gonzo were incredibly cool. But now that they are older
and more mature, their childhood pals seem like no more than some
guy’s hand maneuvering behind pieces of foam and rubber. But if
they think puppet performances are only for kids, it’s time to
think again.
Teatro Tinglado, a Mexican puppetry company coming to the Freud
Playhouse Saturday, is ready to surprise the older generation. "La
Repungnante Historia de Clotario Demoniax" (The Repugnant Story of
Clotario Demoniax) is presented in association with the prestigious
Jim Henson Foundation. So obviously, the puppetry is up to the
standards of Kermit and Miss Piggy.
Teatro Tinglado was founded in 1980, by Pablo and Mireya Cueto.
Now they bring their most recent show to America. "La Repugnante
Historia" is a fast-paced and violent farce. With strange plot
twists, magical spells and mysterious intrigue, the show is
specifically designed for adult audiences.
The story explores the survival of the spirit of the classic
Pulcinello in contemporary society. The lead character of Clotario
Demoniax has its roots in 18th century European hand puppets such
as the Italian "Pulchinella" and "Punch" (as in Punch and Judy) in
England.
The Mexican story of "Demoniax" has been compared favorably to
the enchanting European counterparts, thanks to the text, and most
of all to the four actors who make up the company.
Through the use of sculptured hand puppets and live actors,
Pablo Cueto and his company explore the relationship between an
actor and a puppet. Mexican author Hugo Hiriat created the play
especially for this innovative group.
"The entire production was a collaborative thing," Cueto says.
"Hugo wrote three scenes, then he gave it to us and said, ‘I want
to see how you stage these and then I will keep writing.’ But the
actors did not want to go for this. They wanted the whole script
before they staged it. The author said no, he wanted to get ideas
from the actors, from there he could get ideas on what to write,"
The team work payed off though, and the performance caught the eye
of the Jim Henson Foundation.
"The Jim Henson Foundation came to Mexico to audition for the
Spanish version of ‘Sesame Street,’" Cueto explains. "They came
into contact with one of the members of the group and saw the
production. They were extremely impressed by what they had seen and
they wanted to see more."
Cueto sent a video of the performance and the Henson Foundation
immediately wanted Teatro Tinglado to be in the New York Festival
on one condition; that the show be in English. This posed quite a
challenge for the Teatro Tinglado Company, since most of its
members did not speak a word of English. Cueto knew English but had
never used it in performance. The rest of the actors still do not
know the language, but nevertheless speak in English when they
perform.
Translating the play from Spanish to English was a painstaking
process. Cueto comments that some words and jokes conveniently
worked better in English than they did in Spanish. "When I was
translating the text, I found that some words worked better than
others. I also found that in some of the translation into English,
jokes were appearing where they were not jokes in Spanish. An
example of this is, ‘This woman brought me here and erased my
memories. It’s her style.’ This joke got a wonderful reception from
the audience at the New York Festival and we then had to go back
and rehearse a pause, just to allow for the laughter of the
audience. When this was done in Spanish we got no reaction from the
audience at all."
The storyline contains a lot of black humor that only an adult
audience can relate to. But this is what Cueto intended. He worked
on a number of productions for children, but found that they were
too hard to perform because the children wanted to know about the
process behind the scenes rather than the story. With adult
audiences, Teatro Tinglado finds that viewers just want to be taken
into another world that is beyond reality.
"Kids want to be told the truth, they want to know what’s behind
the puppets, who’s doing it, why we are doing it. The kids want to
watch the performance from back rather than the front. With adults
they don’t have the curiosity anymore, they want to make believe,
they want to be kids again, they want to be lied to  ‘Take me
to another place with our imagination,’" Cueto says. "Adults don’t
want to perceive reality as it is. They want reality in another
way. It gets them into the story."
With adult audiences, Cueto explains, the company is able to go
all the way with each performance without worrying about dwindling
attention spans.
"Unfortunately, adult puppetry is not a common thing," Cueto
laments. "But once you get an adult audience in front of a show,
they find, with a great deal of amazement, that they really enjoy
the show."
THEATER: Teatro Tinglado performs "La Repugnante Historia de
Clotario Demoniax" Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Freud Playhouse. TIX:
$25, $9 for students. For more info, call 825-2101.
UCLA Center for the Performing Arts
Mexico’s Teatro Tinglado performs Saturday at the Freud
Playhouse.