Super Popper

Saturday, december the third.
play: Super Popper

I arrived there and after waiting for about 20 minutes we proceeded upstairs to get into the theatre, but to my surprise, before entering the theatre, on of the actors (Brunella) appears, with a knife in her hand, blood on her clothes and arms, and with a fast, direct and strong opening of the door. my first impression was strong, and I quickly realized the intention of this preface scene, as soon as I entered the auditorium and saw the actors doing loop movements, the same as we were doing in split, and the impression of what the actors were or what the setting is was very different because of the previous event.

The stage had platforms, which allowed different levels on the stage to be used, and through the play, the use of space i though was excellent, as they used all the space, even the doctor sitting on a chair with the audience, the tower being in between the audience, the door at the back of the platform, the 2 platforms at the sides, and the big space at the centre allowed a very good and varied used of the space, which i have no complains in any way about it.

What i understood from the play is i think related to the concept, im not sure, but i can give a sense to everything i will say in the next sentence so i suppose it is right... though it is never explicit in the play. There were this kids, the "leader" was called Aguja, there was Joe, the orphan "aaa-a los huerfanos que tra-trabajan los dejan salir a los 13 veveverdad doctor veveverdad que si?" i really loved his voice work, it was extremely good (maybe im biased as i always find the voice work the hardest thing). ¿Veveverdad Roberto? ¿Veveverdad que si?

Moving on... there was a mute guy, who did speak in some moments, but to the audience, and showed some drawings. The others on stage all thought he was mute... or maybe he was mute, because we are not part of their same reality. There were man different realities taking place in this play, which i will explain in a moment... first the characters. There was also a girl that didn't take too much part in a play (i don't even remember her name) but she was tall and with a green shirt with holes, and another girl with a light blue dress.

At the start you don't notice, because it is not supposed to be said, but understood, because they have no idea of what is really happening, (the kids) but they are being held in a asylum and being tested with some drugs, or maybe being cured by them. They are kids who have grown up with no contact with the outside world, their only source of knowledge comes from comic strips and drugs and driven by the human sexual needs, which they don't fully understand. It shows how humans are not how they really show themselves on society. A individual in society shows a fake image to fit in, to seem moderate, and we have been taught since little what is good and is wrong despite our animals instincts, but in this asylum, they have grown learning from what they have and getting to a state in which they live a different reality, we just reject it because we think that is not alright according to what we know. That is what i think of the background, of the plot, but the structure is much more complicated, because it is really difficult to show this reality to us and making us understand what is going on.

The space was not very big, and the voice was really loud and clear. That is a sign of non-mediocre work. The scene changes were not wasted either, projections of very stereotipical comic strips were shot at the ceiling, and the balloons used that space too. That was the biggest hint of the comic strips, that and when Brunella starts naming people as in the comic book, and also at at the start when she said "el super popper me lo dijo" with the "comic strip" on her hand.

Naked bodies on stage do not just work by themselves... its not like a "sex sells" kind of things. If it had not worked according to the concept, i would just thought Cesar de Maria said "I will put a naked girl on stage... everyone likes seeing naked girls on stage..." But it was not like that. It did fit the concept, as a young girl in that kind of reality did not care about others and criticism, it gave the impression of the crazy person, out of her mind, which she was. She was not taking her "medicine" (drug). Joe did... and when Joe took the medicine I like how the reality on stage changes without any big change of light, scenery or anything, you just... notice it changes. That is one of the arts of the theatre, symbols that make you imagine things are there without them actually being there. He became Super popper. the english names, such as Joe, Super popper, Dr dreamer gave the impression of super heroes (Joe reminded me of viewtiful Joe) and such.

Another transformation with symbols was the right hand platform, that was part of the asylum, but when the curtains were there it looked like a bedroom, when the shemale was there, it looked like the backstage of a show, when the mother was there, the stage looked like a alley, when the librarian was there, the stage was a library. These tranformations were very fast and the activation theory takes place. It is really fascinating how a little change could completely transform the stage.

The doctor was in another reality, he was not in the mind of the kids, he did not understand them. It is a parallel to nowadays when parents hear their kids talk on and on but don't listen to them because they think their thoughts are worthless and think they are not saying anything. This frustrates kids, like Joe. Aguja also refers to this, as they say adults manipulate kids, they don't care about them. Aguja refers to how everyone wants perfect children, good behaving children, but when they turn into adults, no one cares. "they should make better parents".
This is another thing that makes me beleive they are living in a children reality. The lack of emotion from the doctor was, i think, not made for the audience, not for HIS character, but rather for Joe, so that Joe gets frustrated, so he could talk to someone that wont listen. "Pero si no me has dicho nada Joe. El cree que todos escuchan sus pensamientos, pero en verdad no dice nada". Joe's stuttering also helps for this concept.

JOE:Dededeje de conectarla doctor! Us-Usted le hizo esto! Ususted era mi amigo, peppepero ya no, ahora yo quiquiquiero a brunella Doctor!
DOCTOR: Para que me hablas si no me vas a decir nada Joe?

Joe was the outcast, and super popper was his demise.

Therefore we can see there are 3 planes of reality in the play:
1) The asylum
2) The comic strips
3) The Adult reality (which does not take part, but just contrasts, as you can't differentiate something if there is nothing different to it)

And for this 3 planes of reality, the stage was very good fit, as I stated before, because the stage was nothing real, it was in our minds, it was made so the audience can picture is as they want, and therefore the transformations happen instantly in our heads. This allowed for 3 planes to be presented in 1, but no on stage, but on our minds. The play was presented on our minds. This is because of the lack of concrete scenery on the stage. But to what point does theatre work with a stage and when does it transfer to the audiences mind? What has to be shown in order to let the audiences imagination create the scene? Or does the scenery does not matter, but the actions and plot? How do you perform on your audience's imagination and reality to let the transformations flow as smoothly?





¿Algunas palabras que desee enviar a los jóvenes que recien inician su carrera como dramaturgos o directores?

"Que hagan lo que les dé la gana. Que seàn que esto hay que hacerlo libremente. Que no se guien por ninguna norma, que imiten a lo más alto que puedan imitar, que aspiren a ser mejores que los mejores; porque sólo así van a evitar ser empleaditos de alguna telenovela o esclavo de las convenciones que les impone otra persona...eso, nada más." - Cesar de Maria





"Que indica el genero sino los sastres?" lol... in todays society.. to what extent is this true?


P.S. when i wrote split i remembered... when do we get our copy of the one act play? :D