Brava & La Lengua Teatro en Español present a
VIRTUAL LIVE READING of
Beben by Guillermo Calderón
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2020
5pm (PST) via Facebook Live*
Performed in Spanish with English subtitles.
To read about this performance in Spanish, please click here.
On October 17 - the 31st anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake - La Lengua Teatro en Español presents Beben (which in German translates as “to quake; to tremble”) for the first time in the US. Set in Chile in 2010, Beben chronicles the experience of four volunteers from an international NGO who join a camp to help the victims of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. The crisis forces the four to confront the social and political effects of trauma, the role of religion, and the desperate need of state and government relief that arises during natural disasters like these when everyone must adjust to a new normal.
Written by the prominent Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón, Beben is based on a story called “Earthquake in Chile” by Heinrich Von Kleist about a similar earthquake in Chile in 1647. When the NGO volunteers confess to Anna that they have told Von Kleist’s particularly cruel story to the children in the camp, all are forced to reflect on the motivations of their behavior.
This contemporary piece questions what change looks like in today’s politically and ecologically fragile society. If the map around us changes after a natural disaster, shouldn’t the way we treat each other change, also? Maybe not.
Beben was commissioned to Calderón by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. It was originally written inSpanish and translated to German by Hedda Kage.
*To view the Live Stream, “like” La Lengua Teatro en Español on Facebook and then tune in five minutes before the start of the event.
TICKETS
Tickets are a suggested donation of $15.
To make a donation, please click the donation link below and then choose La Lengua Teatro en Español from the dropdown menu. Donations of all sizes are welcome. You may also make a donation of any size on Facebook Live during the event.
ABOUT
PLAYWRIGHT
Guillermo Calderón is a playwright and director. In Chile, he wrote and directed Neva , Diciembre, Clase, Villa, Discurso, and Escuela . He has been invited to premiere Beben and Kuss in Düsseldorf, as well as to mount English versions of Neva, Villa, and Discurso for the Public Theater in New York, the Center Stage in Los Angeles, and the Edinburgh International Festival, among others. His productions have been presented in more than 25 countries. In January 2017 he premiered Goldrausch at the Theater Basel in Switzerland and he presented his latest work B, at the Royal Court Theater in London. In film he co-wrote the films Violeta went to heaven , directed by Andrés Wood, and El Club, by Pablo Larraín, winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize of the Berlin Film Festival and recognized with the Fénix and Platinum Awards for Best Screenplay. As a screenwriter for Neruda, a film directed by Pablo Larraín, he was nominated for the Platinum Awards in the Best Screenplay category. On television, stands out his work as a scriptwriter in the series Ecos del Desierto (Chilean channel CHV).
CAST
Zulema Clares
Elena Estér
Valeria Llaneza
Gerardo Gudiño
CREATIVE TEAM
Virginia Blanco
Paul S. Flores
Deborah Cortez
Roberto Varea
SOUND DESIGN
David Molina
GRAPHIC DESIGN / ART
Adela Fornés
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Benoît Monin
To read the full bios of the cast and creative team, please click here.
ABOUT LA LENGUA
Founded in 2019 by Virginia Blanco, La Lengua Teatro en Español is an emerging company that creates spaces for theater in Spanish, sharing its immense diversity and wealth, in order to empower the Spanish-speaking community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its previous productions are performed readings of Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, and a virtual live-streaming of Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman.
La Lengua Teatro en Español is a resident theatre company at Brava! for Women in the Arts.
La Lengua has just launched a segment of curatorship called ‘La Lengua Te Muestra’ (La Lengua Shows You) where they invite other companies and independent artists to perform as guests. Learn more about us at lalengua.org.
La Lengua Teatro en Español received a Theatre Bay Area CA$H Performance grant.