SCW play opens in DC
Mona Martínez in GALA Hispanic Theatre's production of ‘¡Ay, Carmela!’
José Sanchís Sinisterra 1987 blockbuster Spanish Civil War play ¡Ay Carmela!, very successfully adapted to the screen by Carlos Saura in 1990, has just opened in a new production at the GALA Hispanic Theater under the direction of José Luis Arellano García. The show is “stirring” and “eloquent”, Celia Wren wrote in the Post:
Flashing back and forth in time, Sanchis Sinisterra’s script tells of the mishap-filled performance Carmela and her thespian husband Paulino (Diego Mariani) give for Franco’s troops after accidentally wandering across military lines. Though the two vaudevillians are more interested in self-preservation than politics, they aren’t thrilled to be entertaining the Nationalist side, and their dismay deepens when a group of soon-to-be-shot International Brigade prisoners joins the audience.
Washington City Paper´s Rebecca Ritzel is equally extatic:
There’s just one problem with the acting in ¡Ay, Carmela!, the tragicomedy opening GALA Hispanic Theatre’s season: The show’s two stars are so good, you won’t want to take your eyes of them.
The play is on till October 9. More information here.
