Cuarteto (Quartet)
Country :Argentina
translated by Prof. Charles Philip Thomas
Quartet (Cuarteto) is the story of four antiheroes brought together by their passion for music. One of the essential elements of the play consists of choosing four charming musicians to represent totalitarianism. They act in the name of peace, love and happiness. The play is a parable about power; a view of authoritarianism and some of the subtle and hypocritical forms through which it chooses to manifest itself. But its important merit may be in the particular forum where this parable takes place: a group of musicians united in their universal devotion to Beethoven. Faced with a savage or horrible villain it is easy to experience an immediate loathing, but here, on the other hand, we are faced with charming individuals who create a certain empathy. Rovner states that “In all my plays, besides humor, there is a conflict which arises between the feelings for one side, and the `greater good' on the other; between desire and culturally imposed `duties' These imperatives, carried to the extreme, justified many times by the highest of ideals, usually push Man toward insensitivity, intolerance, and cruelty to those who are closest.”
In Quartet we experience authoritarianism and its horrible disguises… beyond the grotesque creatures that move on stage, fallacies and falsehoods are in our presence.
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Country :Argentina
Eduardo Rovner
Works in Translation by
Prof. Charles Philip Thomas
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