"Jardín de Pulpos" Reveals Life Under Dictator's Tentacles

¿Dondé está el Jardín de Pulpos? ¿Qué es el teatro debajo la arena? Doesn’t make sense? Don’t worry. Producer Francisco N. Alvarez ’11 and director Gabriela Bortolamedi ’10 will show you everything.

The Harvard College TEATRO’s newest production, playwright Arístides Vargas’ “Jardín de Pulpos,” presents the fantastical world of a Latin American man’s lost past and his dreams that make it come back alive. Set in an imagined “theatre under the sand,” “Jardín de Pulpos,” which translates as “Octopus’ Garden,” will run in the Adams Pool Theatre through December 3. Despite being an entirely Spanish-language production, Alvarez, Bortolamedi, and cast members hope that “Jardín” will create an aesthetic that transcends the limits of language, requiring no translation.

For playwright Vargas, oppression under the 1970s Argentinean dictatorship served as the inspiration for “Jardín de Pulpos”; during this time, murdered students’ bodies were tossed into the sea and onto the beach, the beach where Vargas’ play is set.

“The very project of writing the play was originally very, very political,” Bortolamedi says. “And I feel like it still is very political.”

However, for director Bortolamedi, “Jardín” represents more that a political statement.

“There are more subtle ways of oppression that we can still learn to battle through imagination, through subverting the reality that we’re given…and venturing outside those structures that are potentially oppressive, through dreaming,” she says. “I think that’s very much the message of the play.”

The plot is based on the story of José, a man who loses his memory and identity on the shores where the bodies had once been flung, and his efforts to get them back with the help of the town’s people. According to Natali Alcala ’12, who plays La Anciana, “José regains his memory and his identity through dreaming.”

“The message of the play has a lot to do with the importance of recognizing your past so that you understand your current identity more and hence your future,” Alcalá says. “It very much, on a day-to-day basis, pertains to who we are and how we live.”

“As college students, that idea of having to rebuild your identity and really decide who you are is crucial to our present state,” says Adriana I. Colon ’12, who plays Antonia in the show. “I feel like that’s something that’s really relatable—that reevaluation of who we are and where we’re going.”

While it is true that “Jardín” is entirely written and performed in Spanish, according to Alvarez, Bortolamedi, and the cast members, this does not necessarily mean it cannot be a joy for all who come to watch.

“We try to aim it so that you don’t need to be a fluent Spanish [speaker],” Alvarez says. “You can still get so many different things out of it. And I think in the past, the audience has been very receptive to that. No matter what your background in Spanish is, I think that everyone can get something out of it.”

“There’s something that doesn’t need to be translated,” Bortolamedi says. “And that’s the aesthetic language that we use, which we think is really important.”

This aesthetic language is key to creating a “theatre under the sand,” which Bortolamedi identifies as a key goal of the production. This idea was coined by playwright Federico Lorca, the author of TEATRO’s last production “Baja La Arena, El Público.”

“We wanted to reinvent theatre,” Bortolamedi says. “The theatre under the sand is a theatre of fantasies, of dreams and desires. Not necessarily a realistic theatre, which is just a representation of something that is there, but a theatre that seeks to define what lies behind the facade that we see everyday.”

“The Adams Pool Theatre is amazing for the show,” Colon says, “because it has so much personality on its own. We try to exploit that and make it like you’re stepping into a different world when you step into that theatre.”

“This is part of a larger project of TEATRO,” she continues, “which is doing theatre in new, unconventional ways.”

The play’s focus on Latin American events marks a new phase in the history of TEATRO. “It’s the first Latin American play that we’ve done with TEATRO, and I think that’s a very important point,” Colon says.

“Before we were only doing Spanish playwrights,” Bortolamedi says. “So this is kind of a big step for us, showcasing what we think is the essence of Latin America as a region.”

With this exploration of Latin American history, universal linguistic experience, redefinition of theatre, and the nature of self-identity, “Jardín de Pulpos” hopes to provide a revelatory and memorable show, as is the goal of TEATRO as a whole. “We hope to bring a different point of view that’s not seen in many of the plays and arts at the Harvard campus,” Alvarez says. “By exploring other cultures and other languages, we expose different ideas.”

¿Dondé está el Jardín de Pulpos? ¿Qué es el teatro debajo la arena? Doesn’t make sense? Don’t worry. Producer Francisco N. Alvarez ’11 and director Gabriela Bortolamedi ’10 will show you everything.

The Harvard College TEATRO’s newest production, playwright Arístides Vargas’ “Jardín de Pulpos,” presents the fantastical world of a Latin American man’s lost past and his dreams that make it come back alive. Set in an imagined “theatre under the sand,” “Jardín de Pulpos,” which translates as “Octopus’ Garden,” will run in the Adams Pool Theatre through December 3. Despite being an entirely Spanish-language production, Alvarez, Bortolamedi, and cast members hope that “Jardín” will create an aesthetic that transcends the limits of language, requiring no translation.

For playwright Vargas, oppression under the 1970s Argentinean dictatorship served as the inspiration for “Jardín de Pulpos”; during this time, murdered students’ bodies were tossed into the sea and onto the beach, the beach where Vargas’ play is set.

“The very project of writing the play was originally very, very political,” Bortolamedi says. “And I feel like it still is very political.”

However, for director Bortolamedi, “Jardín” represents more that a political statement.

“There are more subtle ways of oppression that we can still learn to battle through imagination, through subverting the reality that we’re given…and venturing outside those structures that are potentially oppressive, through dreaming,” she says. “I think that’s very much the message of the play.”

The plot is based on the story of José, a man who loses his memory and identity on the shores where the bodies had once been flung, and his efforts to get them back with the help of the town’s people. According to Natali Alcala ’12, who plays La Anciana, “José regains his memory and his identity through dreaming.”

“The message of the play has a lot to do with the importance of recognizing your past so that you understand your current identity more and hence your future,” Alcalá says. “It very much, on a day-to-day basis, pertains to who we are and how we live.”

“As college students, that idea of having to rebuild your identity and really decide who you are is crucial to our present state,” says Adriana I. Colon ’12, who plays Antonia in the show. “I feel like that’s something that’s really relatable—that reevaluation of who we are and where we’re going.”

While it is true that “Jardín” is entirely written and performed in Spanish, according to Alvarez, Bortolamedi, and the cast members, this does not necessarily mean it cannot be a joy for all who come to watch.

“We try to aim it so that you don’t need to be a fluent Spanish [speaker],” Alvarez says. “You can still get so many different things out of it. And I think in the past, the audience has been very receptive to that. No matter what your background in Spanish is, I think that everyone can get something out of it.”

“There’s something that doesn’t need to be translated,” Bortolamedi says. “And that’s the aesthetic language that we use, which we think is really important.”

This aesthetic language is key to creating a “theatre under the sand,” which Bortolamedi identifies as a key goal of the production. This idea was coined by playwright Federico Lorca, the author of TEATRO’s last production “Baja La Arena, El Público.”

“We wanted to reinvent theatre,” Bortolamedi says. “The theatre under the sand is a theatre of fantasies, of dreams and desires. Not necessarily a realistic theatre, which is just a representation of something that is there, but a theatre that seeks to define what lies behind the facade that we see everyday.”

“The Adams Pool Theatre is amazing for the show,” Colon says, “because it has so much personality on its own. We try to exploit that and make it like you’re stepping into a different world when you step into that theatre.”

“This is part of a larger project of TEATRO,” she continues, “which is doing theatre in new, unconventional ways.”

The play’s focus on Latin American events marks a new phase in the history of TEATRO. “It’s the first Latin American play that we’ve done with TEATRO, and I think that’s a very important point,” Colon says.

“Before we were only doing Spanish playwrights,” Bortolamedi says. “So this is kind of a big step for us, showcasing what we think is the essence of Latin America as a region.”

With this exploration of Latin American history, universal linguistic experience, redefinition of theatre, and the nature of self-identity, “Jardín de Pulpos” hopes to provide a revelatory and memorable show, as is the goal of TEATRO as a whole. “We hope to bring a different point of view that’s not seen in many of the plays and arts at the Harvard campus,” Alvarez says. “By exploring other cultures and other languages, we expose different ideas.”