Theater and film have made a not effortless marriage since video technology began being used on stage, offering new possibilities for set design and narration. The aptly named company Teatrocinema from Chili puts that relationship at the center of its preoccupations, but after a well-received visit to Paris in 2009, with “Sin Sangre”, the exercise proves perilous in its latest endeavor, “El Hombre que daba de beber a las mariposas”. The show is challenged on various levels, although its technical sophistication is not one of them: the animated film which forms the backdrop for the characters’ movements smartly switches planes from medieval castles to cityscapes, and from towering forests to film sets, with dizzying perspectives, rich hues and sweeping movement. The three-tiered story overlapping lovers past and present revolves around the magico-realist story of a man who learns the ancient art of nourishing Monarch butterflies as they begin their annual migration, and who is bequeathed life-sustaining secrets in return. The ambitions of the tale do not live up however to their enactment on stage: the repeated story lines become redundant, the intended lyricism falls flat (despite a necessary distancing effect wherein the medieval tale proves to be a film in the process of being made), and the message finally seems, unlike the butterflies’ journey, not to take us very far. But if the company means to touch on something strange indeed in the juxtaposition of animated sequences and live acting they succeed: there was an odd anti-climax in seeing the actors take their bow, in medieval get-up and masks (the necessity of these also unclear) against the empty blue screen. Without the filmed decors, they looked fantastically... out of place.
To Dec. 30, Théâtre des Abbesses, www.theatredelaville-paris.com/aux-abbesses
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