Chronicle of a Death Foretold adapted by Fabio Rubiano from the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. National Theatre of Colombia directed by Jorge Ali Triana. Theatre Royal: Sydney Festival January 17-18, 20-25.
An honour killing in a small town. Angela Vicario is found not to be a virgin on her wedding night. Other women knew beforehand and advised her how to deceive her husband, but she would rather tell the truth.
Everyone knew the Vicario brothers intended to kill Santiago Nasar, whose name was beaten out of Angela by her mother, when her husband dumped her home. Everyone said they didn't think the brothers would do it. But they do.
What are the rights and wrongs here? The final question is not whether Santiago was actually guilty of deflowering Angela, but what can we do to have people take action to prevent the real crime - murder - especially when they all have their own small town agendas.
By using a flashback technique, Rubiano reveals the many different viewpoints before and after the murder, but when even the priest and the mayor turn a blind eye, the rule of law is effectively abandoned. Only the doctor tried hard to prevent the killing, but was called away suddenly to someone's dying father. A convenient move for someone, probably.
The program notes describe this play as a "powerful story of revenge", but I found it a tough analysis of social failure.
The use of choral chant, song and dance to highlight a contrasting presentational style of delivering dialogue was particularly successful - both emotions and intellect were engaged in this production, in the Brechtian tradition of distancing us from mere sentimental involvement in a story of revenge so that we could see the political workings of each part of this society. And, sadly, just as in reality, there was no final solution. "Man is man", as Brecht wrote.
The only hope in the play came from a woman, Angela. Beaten, deserted and with no social standing, she writes loving letters to her estranged husband for 17 years. Though he never opens the letters, at last, now fatter, balding and wearing glasses, he returns to stay. May we hope, then, that Angela's insistence on telling the truth, however destructive its effect, will shine eternally? Well, an audience member on opening night in a pause between curtain call applause, called "Viva la Colombia" - and we all felt one with that.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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