“Libre de Liebre”, a co-production of the Teatro Colón and the Teatro Petra, arrives at the Delia Zapata Olivella National Center for the Arts to expose on stage one of the infallible passions of dramatic storytelling: revenge. And at the same time, one of the most difficult human actions: forgiveness.
“Libre de Liebre” premiered in 2015 and we continue to go on stage as if it were the first time. This work is a reflection on forgiveness, on whether it is worth continuing at war, continuing to take revenge”, describes Marcela Valencia, one of its protagonists, who represents Alegría de Sosa, peasant mother of Granados Sosa, Jerónimo Sosa and Marinda Sosa.
It is a story that challenges the perpetrators in the memory of their victims. More than “guilt”, it is about shame. Because before reconciling with others, the individual who has lived and played in war must perhaps forgive himself.
In the words of Liliana Escobar, who plays Roxy Romero, the journalist who covers the events that take place between Salvo Castelo and the Sosa family, “this is a work that has also been applauded by thousands of people, in more than 12 countries all over the world.” the continents. The story is a meeting between a warlord and a family he already knew. It has a lot of black humor, perhaps that’s why it reaches the public so much, because people enter the story, laugh and at a certain moment realize that they are talking about something that everyone knows and it moves or confronts them”.
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The cast of the play brings together actresses and actors such as Marcela Valencia (in the role of Alegría Sosa), Liliana Escobar (as Roxy Romero), Jacques Toukhmanian (playing Granado Sosa – The Hare), Ana María Cuéllar and Juanita Cetina (playing Marinda Sosa), Biassini Segura and Ariel Merchán (giving life to Jerónimo Sosa in the story) and Fabio Rubiano (who acts as Salvo Castelo), as well as a great team in charge of its production.
Regarding the details of the assembly, its director Fabio Rubiano, says: “This work was built by a whole team that did it with a lot of love. In the play, the house gradually fills up with weeds, which do not belong to a country where snow always falls. All these palm trees were built leaf by leaf. Aside from the Colombian team, a group of Brazilian set designers came, who did their practices on the field with ‘Labio de hare’. Years later, we went on a tour of Brazil and saw the already professional set designers, with their careers, and they colored the set design again with all the love in the world because it was their degree project. That still moves me a lot.”
“Visually the work would seem like a realistic piece: a semi-shabby house, with a window, a bed, a fridge, but everything is poisoned. The characters, for example, enter the bathroom and then do not appear again, or appear from another side. A rabbit is peeking out of the big window. Within the scenery things begin to happen that already determine that this is not a realistic piece and that, despite the fact that the performances are, it is traversed by elements that have to do with the theatrical universe”, he adds.
Teatro Petra is one of the most representative groups of contemporary theater in Colombia, with a devoted audience that follows all its projects. His work is born from research and dramatic writing, from the text and the stage. Founded by Fabio Rubiano and Fabio RubianoValencia in 1985, their pieces have won the National Playwriting Award four times, as well as the FUGA biennial award for Best Play (2011) with “Sara says” and the National Directing Award (2013). with “The belly of the whale”, “Sara says”, “Pinocchio” and “Frankenstein is afraid of Harrison Ford”. In the same way, “Labio de hare” was chosen in 2015, its premiere year, as Favorite Work of the Public in the “Esto-vi” awards of Kiosko Teatral.