Neva & Diciembre

A revelation. The appearance on the world theatre scene of a Chilean company featuring three compelling actors and Guillermo Calderón, a playwright and director who believes in art that incorporates the personal and the political. The Teatro en el blanco, theatre that “hits its target”, slashes through the futile and the ostentatious with two chamber pieces that strip away theatrical illusion to make way for the echo of violence knocking at the door.

In Neva, Chekov’s widow, Olga Knipper, and two actor friends juggle with the writer’s life and work while outside the door demonstrators are viciously subdued in a blood bath. That piece takes place on January 9, 1905 in the early days of the Russian Revolution.

Diciembre transports the audience on Christmas Eve 2014 when Chile and Peru are at war. Twin sisters welcome into their house their young brother, a soldier home on leave. They expound their views on war and injustice, and wonder why so much blood is being shed. Two metaphors on the terror outside and the despair within, a one-two snap that is utterly captivating.