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Monday, June 14, 2010

Aquaman The Play

sg
The stills you see above you are from, believe it or not, an actual theater production simply called Aquaman, which debuted in Buenos Aires at the Abasto Theatre in 2008.

I of course never would have learned of this if not for F.O.A.M. member Pablo Turnes, who sent me a link to the show's site, these stills, and some background on the show:

"The play is an hour long, and puts the Aquaman character in a pathetic situation, where he's nothing but an attraction in an aquarium. Aquaman is an attempt to try to understand the superhero angst from a different perspective, someone who used to be the king of the seas, an equal to characters such as Superman and Batman now reduced to some kind of turistic good. It was based in a poem written by HernĂ¡n La Greca, which goes:

I've escaped from love the way I could. Now/
I'm being chased for my debt/In the unction of the dream is where the flesh is
but never how I expect it to be/My father was a sailor and I paint/anchors or dolphins
over my shoulders, which are fatally/erased by the waters."
sg
Normally, I would've posted something like this immediately, since it was such an exciting, unusual (to say the least!) example of the Sea King in the general culture. But I held off for a while, trying to see if I could secure an interview with the play's creator.

Sadly, that never came off, and in the meantime the play closed and I sort of forgot about it entirely, as it got pushed further and further down my "to post" folder as mountains of new Aqua-stuff came in to talk about.

Nevertheless, I find this exciting as hell and maybe if we're lucky someone made a recording of the show. Even though I wouldn't understand the language, I'm still dying to see this. Special thanks to Pablo for the tip!

8 comments:

IADW said...

Wow that is really cool - and look at the Aquaman outfit! That has to be one of the best aqua-get-up's I've seen!

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

That's a great find. If you have the director's contact info, I'd try again - that'd be a fascinating interview, especially given the cultural context. (And if you don't have it, I'm sure you could find it!)

Wings1295 said...

Weird and wild! Is he, um, relieving himself while being watched by the spectators? Guess that would have to happen if you were in a 'fish tank'.

How bizarre!

Genjoke said...

Wow, although I do not speak Spanish, its Argentinian variant is similar enough to Brazilian Portuguese so I would definitely give it a try. I am sure there are real Spanish speaking aqua fans around here that would provide us a translation, and I could fix some subtitles... That, of course, if someone finds the filmed play.

rob! said...

Dan--That outfit is pretty spiffy.

MTN-I don't have the director's direct contact info, but even if I did I'd need someone to translate. I tried contacting them through the translator, but we never heard anything back.

Joe--Yeah, it does kind of look like that, doesn't it?

Gen--Yeah, I really hope it was recorded. I would kill to see it!

Unknown said...

Is that a poster for the play? LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. So creepy and cool -- looks like something that could have been a panel from "Arkham Asylum."

Blopa said...

Well I tried to get tickets for the play but it was too late. It wasn´t cancelled, it was just a limited run. I haven´t been able to get in touch with the author, but I´ll see what I can do.