Cubana Marathon Dancing

The TrilogyAfter the Tempest (ending 1987), La Cubana suffered a small crisis. Many actors that quit their conventional jobs to join us in this adventure back in 1983 wished to go back to their old occupations and left the company. Only four of us remained in La Cubana: Mercè Comes, Carme Montornés, Mont Plans and Jordi Milán. We wanted to continue on, but: ¿how? Moreover, ¿doing what?

Obviously, we could not underestimate the aspects that had been decisive for La Cubana as it was. For instance, the experimenting on new adapted spaces for the theatre activity, the portrait and the homage to the daily incidents, the game, the surprise, the street actions, the audience involvement, etc. We enjoyed all of it, we wished for all of it. Well, then the best thing to do was to do it all: increase the range of actions and build a repertoire. To do a Ménage a trois, what was to do three shows that would be different one from the other and ready to be presented in three different places, where La Cubana would be able to do all it enjoyed most: Street theatre, conventional theatre, and above all, an involvement game. Therefore, the trilogy was created containing:

• Cubanades a la carta (Cubanades on the menu) (1988) – Street theatre
• Cómeme el coco, Negro (Eat my Cocoa, Nigger) (1989) – Drama inside a drama
• Cubana, Marathon dancing (1992) – A participation show

Idea and story line

Cubana Marathon Dancing is a participation show. It is a dance marathon with an orchestra. A parody of life’s marathon.

An American multinational, Cubana Incorporated, wants to settle in Barcelona and they need to recruit some staff. Instead of a response test or others, the company had organised a dance marathon to choose the applicants. According to Cubana Incorporated in order to win a dance marathon, the appliers need to have similar qualities as those needed to work with the company, such as: concentration, steadiness, effort, tenacity, sacrificing spirit, personal time unawareness. If the applicants are able to dance for 24 hours non-stop, the company will open its doors to a life crammed with luxuries and compensations.

The marathon starts. There are different stages sets: two cabinets where one can rent a partner in case of not having none; or else to change partner for a while if requested; a water-cocktail bar where all one can get is a mélange of different water brands from all around the country; a smoking area; a dance academy for those who don’t know much about dancing; and an exhibition cabinet. Two big clocks tell the time going by. On the stage, the orchestra plays all kind of period songs as if they had dragged them up from the “memory’s mausoleum”. The president of the company is welcomed by singing the company’s hymn.

Time goes by and people are getting very tired, only the fittest resist while being cheered by the cheerleaders who guarantee them again, and again, an unforgettable future. A frantic tension invades the applicants at the final spring. There has been an excess of compulsive energy and the fuses blow and it all becomes paralysed. At last, God comes down. When the light is on again, the audience, listening to angel songs and with smoke up to their waist, begin to see up in the room a heavenly vision: The Holy Trinity, the Mother of God and the Whole Saints escorted by a troupe of saints… No one won the company’s marathon, but everybody had won the other marathon, life’s marathon… God speaks and offers them to start yet another marathon. They can chose between going to hell or to heaven, but in both cases they are going to have to fight for their right to be there, and to improve…People leave the place: A new era has begun for everybody.

You can watch the show here: