LAVINIA ZAINEA

Lack of Subtlety

      A week ago, I went to a Spanish play, Paz Eterna, literally Eternal Peace. The troupe came for the Theatre Festival, and the play had really good reviews. The subject it dealt with was terrorism, more precisely how we as individuals should react to it, if we should respond to it with violence or not.
      The message of the play was very clear, in fact it was repeated so often and in such a fashion that it was impossible not to get the meaning. Despite the fact that it was written last year, it reminded me more of a Balzac novel than a 21st century work. It had three heroes who were types of individuals: the impulsive one, the thinker, the athlete, and they were all confronted with the same dilemma. My misfortune, or rather fortune, is that I have grown accustomed to discovering things and forming my opinion of them, rather than having them spelled out for me. Having to be constantly reminded who the villain is and what is wrong and what is right has become tiresome and empty. In fact, I began rooting for the villain to win, or for a less predictable ending, but that never occurred.
      Watching the play got me thinking about the various directions that theater has taken in general in order to appeal to a mass audience: the first one is to shock using a contemporary subject matter, as was the case here, while maintaining a classical structure. The second one is to rewrite an old text, and give us new versions of Romeos. I have yet to see a play in which someone has had the courage to combine a new technique with a new subject. And that is a shame.