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 The first-time collaboration between veteran
theater director Nelda Castillo, 64, and street artist Yulier
Rodriguez, 27, underscores unease among some Cubans with the
recent influx of tourists on the cash-strapped, Communist-run
island.
The interdisciplinary spectacle, "¡Guan melón!, ¡tu melón!", is
also an example of the innovative ways Cubans are pushing the
boundaries of critical expression.
Rodriguez's eerie murals of creatures that look malnourished and
malformed had become ubiquitous throughout Havana over the last
three years, reflecting his view of the dark path upon which
society was.
But the artist said authorities detained him for two days in
August and ordered him to stop painting in public spaces.
Graffiti is seen as vandalism in many countries, although
Rodriguez suspects authorities stopped him more because they did
not like the content of his work.
"Now I am limited in what I can do in the streets, any space
where I can exhibit my work becomes a space of resistance for
me," said Rodriguez.
Castillo, who often collaborates with visual artists, said she
invited Rodriguez to paint the walls of the renowned El Ciervo
Encantado theater because she knew his graffiti would enrich her
play.
"The piece is about the Cubans' struggle in the street in the
context of the new relations with the United States and the
influx of American visitors," she said. "His work is also about
that struggle in the street."
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In the play that was first staged last year, a skinny and squat
comic duo attempt frantically to entertain tourists arriving on
cruise ships with Cuban tunes and to sell them outsized cigars and
paper cones of peanuts.
A student with a manic fake smile, rudimentary English and a
hypersexualised walk sells chocolate and offers salsa lessons, city
tours and cabaret acts "as way to make ends meet."
In a beleaguered economy which shrank last year and where the
average state salary is $30 a month, the tourist sector is a
relative gold mine.
Castillo said Rodriguez's graffiti - eerie, scared and
hungry-looking creatures with four eyes, two gaping mouths or a
crown of skulls - was like another protagonist in the play.
"Dialogue is always enriching as long as it is coherent," said
Castillo.
The two kept quiet about their collaboration until the day it opened
to the public, at the start of the theater festival that runs from
Oct. 20-29.
"Fingers crossed no one from up top orders the graffiti to be
erased," said Rodriguez.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; editing by Diane Craft)
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