Antígona.

In this rendition of the classic Greek tragedy, La Candelaria addresses once again the horrors of political and social violence in Colombian society. When Patricia Ariza visited Urabá, a region in Colombia, she talked to a group of women who could not bury their dead husbands, killed in the civil war. She connected this awful situation to the myth of Antigone and read it to the collective. This version of La Candelaria involves a series of transformations to the original myth. At the beginning, we see Tiresias walking around an empty space; taking the place of the chorus, he gives the audience the historical context, recounting background events that are important for a proper understanding of the play. The play presents three Antigones and two Ismenes who discuss the possibility of violating Creonte's rules in order to bury their brothers according to tradition. The discussion is thus polyphonic. La Candelaria was founded in 1966 by a group of independent artists and intellectuals who came from experimental theater and the broader Colombian cultural movement. Directed by Santiago García, La Candelaria (www.teatrolacandelaria.org.co) is one of Colombian theater's most innovative agents, modernizing national drama while addressing popular audiences. By means of an ongoing exploration of national folklore, situations and characters, they have created some of Colombia's most compelling plays, some of them through the method of 'creación colectiva' ('collective creation'), addressing the acute social and political problems of their society. At the same time, they fostered the creation of Corporación Colombiana del Teatro and have developed a number of theoretical works that reflect upon dramatic creation, its methods and languages. Still nowadays, La Candelaria is committed to repertoire, experimentation, and discussion as fundamental elements to artistic creation. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics