Direct from Brazil with English subtitles, an international poetic-erotic ode through the eyes of Jean Genet, in which two prisoners, a middle-aged man and an eighty-year-old man, each one in their own cell, wander in lustful dreams, creating the image of the other, feeding their joys and more intimate ghosts.
A Love Song is inspired by the only film by French writer and playwright Jean Genet (1910-1986), “Un chant d’amour”.
Genet’s short film tells the story of a love affair between two inmates. Because of its homoerotic content, the film was with controversy and censorship at the time of release.
Genet, known as the “poet of the criminals”, is the author of works such as “The Maids” and “Querelle of Brest” (later filmed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder). Sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of death, he obtained a pardon in 1948 thanks to the efforts of Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean Cocteau, surrendered to his literary talent.
Os Satyros is a Brazilian theatre company founded in 1989, by Ivam Cabral and Rodolfo García Vázquez. They have produced over 100 plays performed in more than 20 countries and also 2 fiction films. The company have been researching the relation between technology and theatre for over 10 years, with several of the company´s productions having used the internet, robots, apps and cell phones on stage. When the pandemic started, they decided to go into the research of new possibilities for digital theatre using the zoom app.
A Love Song
Reviews
This was perhaps the most homoerotic play (or movie) I have ever seen. But what sticks with me is the image of two shattered souls blending as one, a brilliantly artistic muddling of old and young, innocent and evil, guilt and pleasure, as took place between these two prisoners locked in individual cells. Starting from glancing at each other through keyhole images, the two men dance around in each other's minds and bodies (yes, there is full frontal male nudity and suggested masturbation) until the final moments when they become one body longing to leave this world for whatever might come next.
With the death of actor Roberto Francisco on 7/30/21, it would have been easy to drop this show from Fringe. But thankfully a recording was made during the last two months which is being streamed in Fringe now. Filmed in Brazil and recorded in Portuguese, A Love Song is presented with English subtitles. But after awhile, I found myself merely glancing at the words and focusing most of my attention on the movements of the actors. So while I might have missed elements of the story by not understanding the dialogue, I certainly feel as though I saw into the souls of these two lost men as they attempted to reach out to someone for the last time in their lives.
This was perhaps the most homoerotic play (or movie) I have ever seen. But what sticks with me is the image of two shattered souls blending as one, a brilliantly artistic muddling of old and young, innocent and evil, guilt and pleasure, as took place between these two prisoners locked in individual cells. Starting from glancing at each other through keyhole images, the two men dance around in each other's minds and bodies (yes, there is full frontal male nudity and suggested masturbation) until the final moments when they become one body longing to leave this world for whatever might come next.
With the death of actor Roberto Francisco on 7/30/21, it would have been easy to drop this show from Fringe. But thankfully a recording was made during the last two months which is being streamed in Fringe now. Filmed in Brazil and recorded in Portuguese, A Love Song is presented with English subtitles. But after awhile, I found myself merely glancing at the words and focusing most of my attention on the movements of the actors. So while I might have missed elements of the story by not understanding the dialogue, I certainly feel as though I saw into the souls of these two lost men as they attempted to reach out to someone for the last time in their lives.