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Los Angeles, California.  The Gipuzkoan group Kulunka Teatro will perform its work “André & Dorine” in Los Angeles tomorrow, which is enjoying great international success on this American tour.  The shows will take place at the Los Angeles Theater Center on September 7, 8 and 9.

Next, the company will go to New York where it will perform at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre on September 13, 14, 15, and 16.  This will be Kulunka’s second visit to the US with this particular play, since they also participated in the International Hispanic Theater Festival in Miami in last July.

A story without borders

“André & Dorine” tells the emotional love story of an older couple and how the wife’s Alzheimer’s disease affects their relationship.  To help them remember, the husband writes a final letter in which he recounts their story from the day the met to the present.  The work is inspired by the true story of philosopher André Gorz and his wife who suffered from the disease.  Both had decided that one could not live without the other and so committed suicide together in 2007.

The play alternates tragedy and comedy and during the hour-long show takes the audience from laughter to tears and vice versa.  Three actors, Garbiñe Insausti, José Dault and Edu Cárcamo, interpret the 15 characters of the work, disguised with masks and without saying a word, under the direction of Iñaki Ricarte.  The lack of dialogue, paradoxically, allows audiences from around the world to understand the play that has been very well received in countries like Cuba, Nepal, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Argentina (where they performed at the San Nicolas Basque club and the Eusko Kultur Etxea in Buenos Aires), Ecuador, China, Turkey, Russia and Finland.

Without leaving their seats

“The truth is that the tour, and the audience response, have been marvelous,” Insausti explains.  “And once again we see the emotion that is the language of the mask, and the story of André and Dorine, that has no borders.”

The actress emphasizes the expressiveness of the American public, especially durking the symposium that took place at the premiere in Baltimore: “If the applause and the reception of the audience was exciting, what was much more was to discover that the entire audience stayed seated in order to participate in the colloquium with the actors, just like they did in Miami.”

More information on Kulunka Teatro on their Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kulunka-Teatro/171786996168254

A video of the work: