A triple meeting with one of Argentina’s most highly acclaimed directors and playwrights, thanks to the collaboration of the Timbre 4 theatre in Buenos Aires, from where we were able to watch a theatre production and take part in a couple of meetings with the director.
Daniel Veronese, a figure well known to audiences in Barcelona, where he has directed quite a few productions (from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf to Los hijos se han dormido, to name just two), was back in our city, albeit virtually via YouTube. He’s back to show us a work that was first performed in 2019 based on a script by the American writer David Foster Wallace which is part of the stage trilogy Experiences. The play, called La persona deprimida, is performed by María Onetto, a leading actress in the Argentine theatre scene. The play deals with the relationship between a woman and her analyst, her relationship with her parents and the treatment method, based on a “help circle”. This is the name used by the therapist to designate the people that the patient can call at any time to express her feelings or emotions. The painful intimacy of the details explained, narrated in a style more reminiscent of private thoughts than oral expression, and the profound humanity of the themes dealt with, take the text beyond a simple description of the illness suffered by the protagonist to become a kind of desperate plea for help.
The production’s director and creative team then had an online chat with viewers on the creative mechanisms and aesthetic forms used in Veronese’s plays.
Daniel Veronese is the author, adaptor and creator of stage versions, as well as an actor and theatre director. He is the founding member of the experimental theatre group El Periférico de Objetos, which was founded in 1989. In 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005 he was the curator of the Buenos Aires International Theatre Festival. He has received countless awards, including the Platinum Konex award, the Antorchas scholarship, the First Municipal Drama Award (Buenos Aires), the First National Drama Award (Argentina) and the Ibero-American Max award. His shows and plays have been performed in over a hundred cities in America, Europe and Asia. His works have been translated into French, German, Italian, English and Portuguese.
A co-production of T4 / Jonathan Zak & Maxime Seugé and Centro Cultural San Martín.
Author: David Foster Wallace Theatre version and director: Daniel Veronese Performed by: María Onetto Assistant director: Gonzalo Martínez Image design: Papier Studio Lighting design: Ricardo Sica Space design: Daniel Veronese Photography: Germán Romani
