The play 'Ambrozhya and the Phantasm of Art' opens at Teatro Amazonas, this Saturday (30)

Companhia de Teatro Apareceu a Margarida performs the third production based on Sérgio Cardoso's dramaturgies, under the direction of Douglas Rodrigues.

Ambition, death, vanity and power in the 1920s, in the fictitious city of Lazone, are the mottos of the comedy play Ambrozhya and the Phantasm of Artbased on the work of Sérgio Cardosowhich opens this Saturday (3/30), at the Teatro Amazonas Amazonas Theaterat 20h, with free admission. The production is from Companhia de Teatro Apareceu a Margaridawith scenic direction by Douglas Rodrigues.

According to Cardoso, "Ambrozhya e o Phantasma da Arte" is a tragicomedy and a social and political critique of the cultural period. Written in 1981, the work tells the story of a family, in a city abandoned after a crisis, that tries to survive financially by promoting artistic performances.

The plot unfolds after a painting by a local painter Leone Castomante is sold for 100 thousand pounds at an auction house in London. Knowing this information, the family holds an event to celebrate 20 years since the inexplicable disappearance of the painter, who is the ghost of art hovering over Lazone. "Ambrozhya" is featured in Cardoso's collection, "Book of the Urban Theater of the Women of Lazone."

"The work will always have a current content, because it talks about cultural activities. In 1980, when the country was still in a process of political opening, the situation was even worse, because there was no support for artists, who lived in poverty," comments the author. "The story also involves a lot of suspense and supernatural terror. I am very honored and proud of the production," says Sérgio Cardoso.

The cast includes experienced actors from the amazon artistic scene, such as Geraldo Langbeck (Gervásio), Michel Guerrero (Ambrozhya), Paulo Altallegre (Carlessônio Wolfgang), Thais Vasconcellos (Leona), Luso Neto (Sir. Fergunson), Karol Medeiros (Laura Amphibia), and Israel Castro (Suplício).

Actor and director of Companhia Apareceu a Margarida, Michel Guerrero points out that, in yet another partnership with the author, it is gratifying to present a play that brings such incisive criticism to the art scene.

"It is a very strong dramaturgy, among many others that Sérgio Cardoso imprints in his biography," says Guerrero. "When he deals with themes such as families in a post-crisis era, analogous to the rubber crisis in Manaus, the work shows how a city suffers and the consequences of this in various nuances, such as the artistic. Lazone is deserted and bleak, and the 'Líteromusical' society that Ambrozhya manages, which was once highly regarded and assisted, no longer has the resources it once had and is discredited. It is a work that contains several current themes", he declares.

The show has the musical signature of Taiara Guedes and has the cultural support of the Amazonas Government, through the State Secretariat of Culture, Manaus City Hall and the Amazonas Theater Federation (Fetam).

The play

The plot unfolds in the house of Ambrozhya Fagundes de Leão, headquarters of the Leone Castomante Musical Society, where everyone is bankrupt. The matriarch is upset, for 20 paintings by the artist, who painted macaws, parrots, and little birds, are stored in the basement of her house. The spirit of Leone Castomante hovers quietly over the town, for he is the Phantom of Art. Carlessonio, Ambrozhya's son, discovers the existence of Leone's only descendant, Miss Leona, who lives in Rio de Janeiro.

Immediately, the ambitious family arranges a way to lure her to Lazone and forges the commemorations of the deceased's vintenary, sending for her with the intent of killing her, thus intending to return to the social and political evidence, mobilizing the system around the false commemorations of the artist's death.

After its premiere, the play "Ambrozhya and the Phantasm of Art" will have a season in May and June, on Sundays, in a theater to be defined.

Third performance

This is the third staging of Sérgio Cardoso's dramaturgies by the Companhia de Teatro Apareceu a Margarida. The first was 'Gabriel Drago, o vampiro do Teatro Lazone' (Gabriel Drago, the vampire of the Lazone Theater), in 2001, sponsored by the now extinct Fundação Villa-Lobos.

The second was the successful 'A herança maldita de Mercedita de La Cruz', in 2006, which ran for ten years, with an audience estimated in more than 60 thousand spectators and participation in national theater festivals in Acre, Amapá, and Rio de Janeiro. The company celebrates 21 years of uninterrupted stage activity.

With information from the press