LA PETENERA
Originally produced at the Firehouse with stark, dramatic lighting and near-perfect acoustics, and under the direction of Rosario Vargas, the Spanish-language play was a surprise hit for Latino Chicago Theater Company. But this transplant at Cabaret Voltaire is a mere shadow of its former self.
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A series of poems strung together to tell a loose story, La Petenera is wholly credited to Garcia Lorca by Latino Chicago, but some of the pieces sound adapted and at least one appears to be a tribute to Garcia Lorca by another Spanish poet, Antonio Machado.
Produced in Cabaret Voltaire’s subterranean stage (to get there you have to go out through the back of the cafe, then down several uneven and badly lit steps), the show suffers in the claustrophobic performance space. The lighting, as compared to that at the Firehouse, is embarrassingly amateurish. In fact, the production is often–quite literally–in the dark. The low basement ceilings inhibit the choreography and often suffocate the rich voice of singer Felipe Camacho.
