The heat may be going out of this summer in London, but Ovalhouse Theatre will be keeping things warm for a couple of weeks yet, with the Casa Latin American Theatre Festival, opening today.
There’ll be seven UK premieres of award-winning shows from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico on the bill, as well as new work from UK-based emerging Latin American theatre makers. As well as the plays, look out for live music, talks, debates, workshops, dance, community events and more.
Highlights for us include a Spanish-language performance of Jemmy Button from a Chilean theatre group, about the first savage to be captured by Darwin’s Beagle team and “civilised”. It’s being performed with English surtitles. Also, A Cidade das Donzelas, a dark modern fairy tale about a village of hideously ugly women who haven’t seen a man for 100s of years, and the man who accidentally stumbles in… This show comes from Brazil, and is performed using traditional North East Brazilian masks, music and dance. Again, there’ll be English surtitles for the non-Portuguese speakers among us.
If the language barrier puts you off, check out those performances labelled “language no problem”, such as Holoclownsto, a clown piece about the Holocaust (check out the taster below), and Diego y Ulises from Argentina, a Gus Van Sant-inspired dance piece about two young men in love.
All tickets are "pay what you can": choose between spending £5, £10 or £15 and you’ll get the same ticket whatever you pay. All box office takings will support future Casa Theatre Festival projects.
The Casa Latin American Theatre Festival runs from 7-16 September at the Ovalhouse, 52-54 Kennington, SE11. Visit casafestival.org.uk for more information, and some of the sunniest music we've heard in ages.
