Revolution Cirkus

The Life and Times of Luis Emilio  Recabarren
September 2004

Press Release (haga click aqui para Parte de Prensa en Español)

13 Lunas Arts Collective presents:

Revolution Cirkus: The Life and Times of Luis Emilio Recabarren

Written and Directed by Emiliano Silva
Music Directed by Cherolyn Fischer
Featuring Live Music by the Pachamama Band
And special guest Chilean guitarist Cristian Rojas

When: Fridays-Sundays September 10-26 at 7 pm
Where: Center for Independent Artists, 4137 Bloomington Ave S, Minneapolis 55407
For Tickets or More Information: 612-721-7233 or www.13Lunas.org
$15 General/$10 Popular Fridays 9/17 and 9/24 (Group Discounts Available)
Press Direct Line: 612-721-7233

Revolution Cirkus: The Life and Times of Luis Emilio Recabarren is a carnivalesque anti-epic that explores the origins of the workers movement in South America and it’s relation to Latin Americans’ struggles for human rights and social justice today. The play is a tribute to the courage, passion, and creativity of the workers of Latin America, as well as an exploration of the emergence of capitalism and corporate globalization and the impact it has had, and continues to have, on the lives of workers in Latin America and around the world.

Using the theatrical language of the Commedia dell’Arte of the Italian Renaissance and the Latin American street theatre tradition the play explores the life and times of the legendary Chilean union leader Luis Emilio Recabarren (1876-1924), who founded some of the first worker cooperatives and unions in Chile and Argentina.

Live music by the Pachamama Band, political satire, humor, and magic-realism combine to expose the grotesque inequalities of Recabarren’s times and recreate the landscape of struggle that gave birth to the union movement in South America. Corpse-stealing priests, Marxist jugglers, impotent generals begging at the brothels, dancing pickpockets, philanthropic castrati, and fed-up workers are just a few of the characters that emerge to tell the story of a time that although gone, bears many striking resemblances to our own.

Parte de Prensa

13 Lunas Arts Collective presenta:

Revolution Cirkus: The Life and Times of Luis Emilio Recabarren

Escrita y Dirigida por Emiliano Silva
Dirección Musical de Cherolyn Fischer
Con música en vivo interpretada por Pachamama Band
Invitado Especial el guitarrista chileno Cristian Rojas

Cuando: Del 10 al 26 de Septiembre, de Viernes a Domingo a las 7pm
Donde: Instituto de Arte y Cultura, 4137 Bloomington Ave S, Minneapolis 55407
Para comprar boletos o para más información: 612-721-7233 o www.13Lunas.org
$15 General/$10 Viernes Populares 9/17 and 9/24 (Descuentos a grupos)
Línea Directa de Prensa: 612-721-7233

Revolution Cirkus: The Life and Times of Luis Emilio Recabarren es una anti-épica carnavalesca que explora los orígenes del movimiento obrero en América Latina y su relación con las luchas por los derechos humanos y la justicia social de los trabajadores hoy en día. La obra es un tributo a la valentía, pasión y creatividad de los trabajadores Latinoamericanos, al mismo tiempo que una exploración de la emergencia del capitalismo y la globalización corporativa y de el impacto que han tenido en el mundo.

Utilizando el lenguaje teatral de la Comedia dell’Arte del renacimiento Italiano y la tradición del teatro callejero Latinoamericano, la obra explora la vida y los tiempos de Luis Emilio Recabarren (1876-1924), uno de los fundadores de los primeros sindicatos obreros en Chile y Argentina.

Música en vivo interpretada por la Pachamama Band, sátira política, humor y realismo-mágico se combinan para exponer las desigualdades grotescas de los tiempos de Recabarren y para recrear el escenario de las luchas que dieron nacimiento al movimiento obrero en América Latina. Sacerdotes robando cadáveres, payasos marxistas, generales impotentes mendigando en las puertas de los burdeles, carteristas danzantes, castrados filantrópicos y obreros hasta las narices de injusticias, son algunos de los personajes que emergen de la trama para contar las historias de un tiempo que a pesar de haber pasado, guarda increíbles semejanzas con el nuestro.

More about Recabarren

Recabarren’s life and times are fascinating. Pablo Neruda wrote this Poem to Luis Emilio Recabarren in the 1960’s

“Recabarren, the one who organized the lonely, who brought the books and the songs to the walls of terror, the one who gathered a hope to another hope, and who gave a name to the slave with out voice, the one who gave a name to the immense suffering of the people.”

Recabarren rose from the workers’ ranks to represent them in a world of bourgeois politicians who thrived unchallenged: ignoring, co-opting and manipulating the voices of the oppressed. He helped to organized and found the first worker cooperatives and unions in Chile and Argentina. During this time, Chile had the highest inequality of wealth and land distribution in the Americas, and basic workers rights were unheard of: in general the working classes lived condemned to misery and crime, prostitution and slave-like labor, while the rich landowners and industrial oligarchies indulged in importing luxurious items and in inviting famous opera artists from Europe. This is also the period when massacres of unarmed workers occurred all over the continent.
Our Fall Show will explore various aspects of the history of the workers movements in Latin America at the begining of the century. The play uses live music and circus-theatre to create a delirious performance piece.
Recabarren lived through the Santa Maria de Iquique massacre in Chile, one of the most horrendous events in the history of the Latin American workers’ movement. Twenty-thousand workers, along with their wives, children and relatives, assembled to peacefully protest the unjust working conditions in the mines. In response, government, national and foreign business groups sent the military, who surrounded the unarmed workers and opened fire, killing hundreds. This event, and many others, make an exploration of the political landscape of the Americas at the beginning of the twentieth century not only interesting, but relevant. At a time when the gap between the rich and the poor widens every day a little more, and when workers lose their rights and pensions at the hands of unscrupulous corporations, the message of Recabarren becomes more and more significant.
The play is part of our 2003-2004 Season and it would open a space for Latino artists and Latino communities to learn, better understand and critically question various aspects of the history of workers in the Americas and how their ideas and struggles for social justice and democracy relate to our world and our communities. This project will give the opportunity to around twenty emerging Latino artists and artists from other communities to develop their potential in their specific disciplines. Play writers, musicians, actors, set designers, costume designers and others will collaborate to create a maeningfull performance piece that will energize our communities conversations about social justice and democracy.
Help us to make it possible!

“The one who organized the lonely, who brought the books and the songs to the walls of terror, the one who gathered a hope to another hope, and who gave a name to the slave with out voice, the one who gave a name to the immense suffering of the people.”
Pablo Neruda’s Poem to Luis Emilio Recabarren