MAIDEN

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The first version of the show was produced in 2012 in Costa Rica with Teatro Popular Melico Salazar / Ministry of Culture & Youth / FIA International Festival of Arts, with the support of Italian Embassy in San Jose, CNT (Compañía Nacional de Teatro), under the patronage of IILA (Istituto Italo Latino-Americano), written and directed by Giuseppe L. Bonifati, translator Zingonia Zingone, actors Alberto Martinez Guinaldo (Spain) and Paula Sancho Fernandez (Costa Rica).

The new version, which premiered in Europe in 2018, has a new protagonist: Lide Martinez Abaigar, recently graduated at RESAD – Real School of Dramatic Arts (Madrid, Spain).

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In a country existing without army since more than 50 years, Greta has a dream which she keeps hidden as fiercely as her virginity: to become a soldier-woman. In order to make it real, she performs a desperate attempt: she wants to be accepted into the “Civil Guard”. The police chief, Ramón, apparently listens to her and understands her. But he is a rather corrupt man. The young girl is overwhelmed by an orgy of words that make her believe in the man’s true interest, and she trusts him. Nevertheless, Ramón takes her by force, as in a ritual sacrifice. Will these roots of a “happy past that has produced unhappy people” bring Greta in the end to be crushed by the memory of a lost and sincere time? Only towards the end of the performance develops the story into an unexpected outcome, that of a revolution. The revolution of ‘the different’, the last possibility to resist, albeit in vain, against the barbarism to come. Greta then pays back for her lost dream of becoming a soldier and without complaining, she says farewell to herself and to what she has lost along the way, with a deep wound in her heart.

***** Student’s Jury Award – Puppet is A Human Too Festival 2012 (Warsaw, Poland)

*****Special Mention at International Theater Award 2013 “Teresa Pomodoro” (Milan, IT)
The jury was coordinated by Livia Pomodoro and composed by international masters as Eugenio Barba, Lev Dodin, Frédéric Flamand, Jonathan Mills, Lluís Pasqual and Luca Ronconi.

*****ARTISTI MADE IN MARCHE 2015 by regional theatre circuit AMAT (Marche, Italy)

PRESS

(Andres Saenz Lara – La Nacion, Costa Rica)
The empty stage, illuminated only by the light source of a bulb hanging from a rope, turned out to be an impressive setting. The light has taken different forms and was manipulated by the actors in a surprising way. (…) The movements in the space and the body expression supported the kinesthetic and visual interest for the all lenght of the show. (…) However, the essential meaning of Maiden in Costa Rica has remained opaque to me, though, judging by the warm applause at the end, maybe the public has perceived that most than the critic.

(Emilio Nigro – Quotidiano di Calabria, Italy)
Maiden in Costa Rica was awarded in Warsaw at Puppet is a Human too Festival for the “brave attempt to experiment in the context of visual theater (…) In January, the performance will be set up at Odin Teatret in Denmark. With Alberto M. Guinaldo and Paula Sancho Fernandez, its the result of an international co-production. It stages the disappointments of Greta in a country without army for more than 50 years, who dreams of becoming a woman–soldier. A dream (…) that jealously she guards as her virginity.

TOUR

International Festival of Arts | San Josè de Costa Rica
Teatro 1887 – CENAC,  Ministry of Culture & Youth  | San Josè de Costa Rica
Puppet is a Human too Festival | Warsaw, Poland
Odin Teatret – Nordisk Teater Laboratorium | Holstebro, Denmark
Huset | Copenaghen, Denmark
Palcoscenico Vita Fest  AMAT | Teatro dell’Arancio | Grottammare, Italy
Magda Feszt | Csokonai Szinhaz | Debrecen, Hungary
Delhi International Arts Festival | New Delhi, India
Escena Abierta Festival | Burgos, Spain
NTL Festival | Odin Teatret, Denmark
ACCO Int. Theatre Festival | Israel