Santiago de Cuba.— The play “Repique por Mafifa or the last bell ringer”, 33 years after its first presentation, premiered the day before in this city, by Estudio Teatral Macubá, under the direction of the National Theater Award winner Fátima Patterson.
Patterson told the Cuban News Agency that the year 1991 marked a before and after in her career, since writing that text was a challenge, which she had to give to another actress for interpretation, and find a director.
As she commented, in a photograph of Gladys Linares she observed the gaze of the older bell ringer and felt that it was telling her something, hence the motivation to tell the story of that black, poor woman from the neighborhood of Los Hoyos, like her.
Women are not talked about as much, hence the importance of programs such as the Advancement of Women and the Aponte Commission, she said.
He pointed out that the work is linked to the community, and at present it is important that they receive this version, developed in the arena theater format as in its beginnings.
Daylen Osorio, leading actress, described the opportunity as a gift, since she knows other artists who requested it, and it could not be possible.
She stated that in a rehearsal of the play “We Are Women”, where there is a fragment of “Mafifa”, Patterson proposed to her to do the monologue, and she, somewhat scared, agreed to undertake the invitation.
The staging becomes a great challenge and commitment to the teacher, the audience and the group, which is considered a school for personal and professional life.
For Consuelo Duany, artistic director, this new adaptation dialogues with the defined aesthetics of “Macubá” and with contemporaneity, since it is a text that addresses and makes visible Santiago and Cuban women.
Repique por Mafifa, with costume design by Martha Mosquera, is a musical show with roots in relationship theater.
