The Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC) was filled with a burst of heat, passion, and salsa dancing on the evening of Jan. 17. It was the opening performance of Carmen Aguirre’s 2012 Undercurrents theatre festival success, Blue Box.
Blue Box is a 90-minute one-woman performance, in which Aguirre regales the audience with two, seemingly unconnected narratives — one about her role as a Chilean revolutionary, and another about a love affair she had more than a decade later.
“I wasn’t interested in telling, necessarily beginning to end story so neither of them necessarily follows a typical narrative arc,” she said of the parallel storylines.
“It was more about exploring cores that live within me, core stories that live within me, and I think we all have these core stories that live within us, that define us in some way.”
Aguirre said that this play is one in which her connection to the audience is of utmost importance.
“There are many plays in which you break the fourth wall but the houselights are down so you don’t actually have eye contact with the audience. This one is all about looking for that contact,” she said.
Aguirre doesn’t only use eye contact to draw in an audience. She leans over members in the first row, and speaks directly to them. She uses salsa music to set the mood for certain moments in the narrative, calls up individual audience members to join her on stage and at one point she turns her one-woman monologue into a dance party where the entire audience is invited to take a place on the floor.
As a revolutionary she describes herself as “20 years old and 20 pounds underweight,” explaining that “terror will do that to you. She details a life of complete restraint and fear, one where if she let herself feel pleasure she would “crack.”
In direct contrast, the narrative that runs parallel to this one is completely lacking in restraint. No longer in Chile, the newly-divorced Aguirre has a vision in which her dead grandmother leads her to a man, the “vision man,” with whom she falls desperately in love.
This section is lighthearted and hilariously crude, but ultimately heart-breaking. Much like the revolution she takes part in, this love affair is doomed to failure. That is why the blending of the two stories is such a success.
“I think Carmen believes that stories about love are really important and this is a story where love is sought and not always received, not always won,” said director Brian Quirt.
“I think stories where we don’t get what we want are important to us,” he said.
Unsuspecting audience member Jane Morris became a surprise star when she was called onto the stage to help illustrate a part of the narrative in which the young revolutionary Aguirre is followed by a member of Pinochet’s corrupt government.
“She’s very compelling, so there’s no real way you could say no,” Morris said with a laugh. “I’m probably never going to forget this one,” she said.
Blue Box will run at the GCTC until Feb. 23.
