The actor and director Juan Echanove presents and stars in ‘Ser o no ser’ at the Auditòrium de Palma this Saturday and Sunday
‘Ser o no ser’ (To Be or Not to Be) is one of the great comedies of the 20th century whose plot deals with theatre and comedians.
It was originally conceived as a film directed by the master Ernst Lubitsch. It was released in 1942, by United Artists, at the height of World War II and the height of Nazism. The play is intended to demonstrate the strength and resilience of theatre in disarming the lies and horror of Nazi fascism through comedy.
Photo: Auditòrium Palma.
Synopsis
Warsaw, August 1939. The Tura couple’s theatre company moves into a theatre to rehearse Gestapo!, a play satirizing the global threat posed by Hitler and Nazism. At the same time, they perform Hamlet, whose verse “to be or not to be” will be the key to an extra-marital affair. But problems multiply on all fronts: the Polish authorities forbid the premiere of Gestapo! to avoid Hitler’s reprisals, but this does not stop Germany from invading Poland. With the theatre half-destroyed by bombing as a centre of operations, the actors of the Company will have to devise a double theatrical plot of wardrobe and impersonation to defuse the delivery of a document that would put an end to the Resistance and to flee from Poland to England, the land of Shakespeare. This means that it is they themselves who, in a show of acting, pass themselves off as Nazis. In the midst of this adventure, the Turas will have to deal with the arrival in their marriage of a young R.A.F. aviator, who has turned their married life into a vaudeville.
Opening times
The play, which premiered on Thursday the 16th of March, can still be seen this weekend at the Auditòrium de Palma.
- Saturday 18th March 2023. Sala Magna of the Auditòrium. Session 19:00 h.
- Sunday, 19th March 2023. Sala Magna of the Auditòrium. Session 19:00 h.
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