North & Sur
Written by Oscar Perdomo Marín and directed by Iraida Tapias. An extraordinary encounter between two icons of the literary world: the great writer Edgar Allan Poe, recognized as one of the fathers of modern literature, and the Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni, one of the most important poets of Latin American postmodernism.
Under the invocation of the poem "The Raven", the poet from Boston meets the Argentine poet in the universe of transcendence. During their extraordinary encounter, they discover, reject, attract, meet, laugh, dream, dance, and finally reveal the myth of “The North” and “El Sur” in an atmosphere that ends with Louis Armstrong's song of life: "What a wonderful world".
North and Sur, is a fictional meeting between the poet of the North, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), and the poet of Sur, Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938). While
this interchange never actually occurred, it is in the space of art where they share the most intimate and passionate moments of their lives.
The audience
will witness the intensity of these artists and share the most important moments of their careers and their relationship with art and death.
Edgar and Alfonsina discover their differences and similarities within an atmosphere of incredulous astonishment; they contrast, attract, and repel
each other in a space of encounters with no options. Now, they are in an undefined place that encompasses all spaces of the immaterial Universe, the
space of transcendence.
Both characters explore broken bridges, shattered dreams, the pain that only found relief in death; the recognition that peeked through without breaking
the glass of universality; the absence of a lasting home; swimming in adversity and against adversity; and love. They are perplexed by their
respective lives as creators and gradually discover each other; what brought them together and what did not.
Alfonsina in Spanish and Poe in English will try to transcend the barriers that unnecessarily separate the North and South. The audience will be part of the mutual discovery between both characters. Alfonsina will be surprised by the masculine arrogance and indelible pain that Poe carries. To Edgar, a woman poet and the audacious smile with which she tells her sad story that seems almost implausible. She will welcome the spectators with a glass of wine and singing tangos. He will await them in the library. Then, together, actors and spectators, to the rhythm of a milonga, will enter the theater to continue sharing that first encounter between a male poet from the North and a female poet from the South.
The play is about the meeting of cultures and means to stimulate the audience to open themselves to learning about different people, cultures,
races, ideas, and languages through an innovative theatrical presentation.
