Posted by Mariela on March 31, 192003 at 01:07:58:
Although Triana (with out a doubt a revolutionary), Buenaventura and Boal have there own style of revolutionary theatre production, I saw several similarities between The Orgy and Assassins pointed separately in Diana Taylor’s clever and deep reviews:
The cycle in which The Orgy belongs to is one of “cosmic balance (much like the earlier plays read in class) based on perpetual loss and restoration”(Taylor), which is definitely the same environment in which the characters in Assassins struggle against.
Neither the beggars nor the sisters can forget or escape their reality. Hunger and control for power always brings them back to a place of disaccord with themselves and one another.
“The powerful flaunt their fantasies” (Taylor). In both plays, we see how it is a necessity to have fantasies in order to be in control and to create or place themselves in a position where they can speak up, regardless if they are suppressed by the regime. Patriarchal order is clear in Assassins, where Lalo imposes order on the sisters. But in the beggars it is not as direct. Money (power) lies in the hands of the deaf son, but the order is taken away and implemented by the old hag. As with the beggars, Cuca and Beba do not recognize or maybe do not go along easily with their brother (the beggars the old hag) as the one in complete power, yet they are all in a position of having no other choice.
The beggars and sisters turn against each other and take advantage of being in the same position to their temporary favor. This mutual dependency to place one and the other in advantage or disadvantage is such a great metaphor for our dependency and rejection to government. In both we see very similar ways of attempting the de-colonialization process through rehearsals (out of memory or the present situations) of being the victim, victimizer. But instead of change they remain the very same role – as Buenaventura says that there is no solution but only the language of crisis to only address the process.
As opposed to Assassins, we do know what is going on in The Orgy. We get a better sense of what the beggars want and even predict how they may go about achieving it. In Assassins we do lack the “perspective” of what is actually going on and what may happen. “We can speculate but we don’t know”. In Assassins the characters can’t even orient themselves in their own space and time, but the beggars do have knowledge of what is asked of them and how they may end up. But the lack of structured order in both are used by each to illustrate how the attempt to change is and leads to a state of instability. If the character or the situation is in, their reality is out and vice versa.
Both plays share the same ending of momentary relief and imagined possibilities that do not sustain by characters who strive to be other than what they are or are imposed to be. Their cyclical struggle for identity, power and order ends in further rehashing of their situation with no resolve and death of the oppressor.