Vidrio Colorado: Living Room Theatre by Lucas Radicella, 12 October 2012.
Wondering if you would rather stay in the comfort of your living room or go spend a night out at the theatre? Vidrio Colorado, a play directed by Veronica McLoughlin and delivered in the intimacy of an apartment, may be the perfect compromise.
Booking a reservation to see Vidrio Colorado is in itself quite a unique process. After a few e-mail exchanges a meeting point is set “in front of the Turk’s ice cream shop.” “Be on time,” the e-mail warns: “our guide will take you to the location of the play and we shall not give away the address if you are late.”
An invitation more reminiscent of a spy flick than a night out at the theatre.
The punctuality warnings are not in vain as ten minutes after the rendezvous time our guide whisks us away from the Turk’s place to the play’s location, an apartment a few blocks away.
The entrance to the improvised theatre adds to the eerie and intimate atmosphere with dim lights leading up a spiral staircase and into the flat.
The set consists of a living room and a mezzanine representing a flower shop. It is here where the charm of staging a play in an apartment is best demonstrated. The intimacy of the scenes in the living room couldn’t be reached even in the smallest of theatres, helped by the fact that you might well actually be sitting in the character’s living room after all.
This comfortable context is well exploited, with the lighting and sound effects managed brilliantly, the pitch-black monologues of each character being particularly well executed.
In Vidrio Colorado, Fanny (Sophie Tirouflet) is a foreigner who owns a flower shop in Argentina. You get the feeling she would probably be a foreigner anywhere on the planet, as she already lives in her own imaginary world that revolves around her plants and trees, fountains and pathways. The other characters are Victor (Emiliano Pandelo) and Felipe (Francisco Benvenutti), two brothers with personalities that are diametrically opposed, Felipe’s girlfriend Sonia (Loren Tarelli) and the eccentric Garabedian (Gabriel Urbani), director of the choir Victor sings in.
Vidrio Colorado’s plot unfolds around a garden. It is no ordinary garden, but one that is designed and built with such passion and dedication that it becomes the most important single thing in Fanny’s life. At the same time, she herself plays an increasingly important part in the other characters’ lives.
“The play could be a classic romantic comedy, but it’s not” reads Vidrio Colorado’s website, an assessment that is true in many ways. Although the classic love-triangle scenario is the main line the plot follows, Garabedian and Fanny’s characters add a touch of fantasy to the play.
The actors’ interpretations are all excellent, though Loren Tarelli and Gabriel Urbani, adding their touches of folly and craziness, shine a fraction brighter than the rest and make the play utterly hilarious at times.
Overall Vidrio Colorado is a very enjoyable experience with the intimacy and originality of the setting combining well with a funny play skilfully depicting the paranoia and irrationality of love and romantic relationships.
Vidrio Colorado is in Spanish and although the actors do well in transmitting emotions, and the plot’s complexity is not one that requires understanding every word, it is recommendable to have at least a basic understanding of the language to enjoy the play fully.
The play is shown every Thursday at 8:45pm in Palermo Hollywood. Places can be booked at vidriocolorado@gmail.com or 154434-5002.
More info at http://vidriocolorado.blogspot.com.ar/.
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