Theater review ‘Un matrimoni de Boston’ Author David Mamet Translation Joan Sellent Direction Josep Maria Mestres Set design Paco Azorín Costumes Nídia Tusal Lighting Ignasi Camprodon Sound space Jordi Bonet Performers Emma Vilarasau, Marta Marco, Emma Arquillué Venue La Villarroel, Barcelona 4Josep Maria Mestres returns to stage ‘A Boston Marriage’, the play by David Mamet that premiered at the Teatre Lliure in 2005. With the same (excellent) translation by Joan Sallent. There is no Anna Lizaran, but there is Emma Vilarasau who inherits her role and the emerald necklace of that Victorian lady with character and a Bible at the ready. Marta Marco, who in the first version was the maid Catherine, takes over from Vilarasau and passes her baton to Emma Arquillué. The return to the stage of Mamet’s most ‘Wildean’ piece could be tinged with nostalgia -Anna Lizaran died in 2013 – but what is represented is still as fresh as it was two decades ago. The Anna played by Vilarasau once again displays her enveloping arts before Claire when she ends her relationship because she has met a young girl. Claire counteracts with her tricks: she wants Anna to lend her the house for the first meeting with the intruding lover. The rustling of the dresses is heard in the comings and goings of the protagonists as an acoustic metaphor for the uncomfortable situation. The maid witnesses this ‘marriage’ that seems to be breaking up: her interruptions to warn the lady about a breakdown in the kitchen are responded to by her contempt for origins that are Scottish, but that Anna insists are Irish: thus he can refer with disdain to famines and huts that are heated with peat. There is no room for nostalgia because these ladies of Sappho are still as biting as in 2005. Paco Azorín’s schematic set design contributes to enhancing the timeless sensation and only the The characters’ clothing takes us back to the 19th century. Vilarasau convinces because he is Anna’s age and Marco metabolizes Claire’s character. Emma Arquillué manages to be a Catherine as mischievous as Marco was. Three women from different social classes that Mamet brings together to play the cards of survival and demonstrate for the umpteenth time what Anna sarcastically preaches: that the male sex is there to be deceived. The great Lizaran’s necklace is in good hands.
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