La Jornada: Staging adapts a novel by the beat Jack Kerouac

The American author and central figure of the generation beat He came to write and discovered a city of boleros, taxis and endless nights. The memory of those stays and the relationship with a young woman addicted to morphine would end up shaping In Tristeone of his most intimate works.

More than six decades later, the National Theater Company (CNT) began the season with that story in the Héctor Mendoza room on Tuesday night.

In interview with The DayLuis Mario Moncada, national theater coordinator of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature and responsible for the adaptation, pointed out that “more than a love story, it is a reflection on helplessness.

“Kerouac knows from the beginning that the conditions do not exist for that feeling to thrive. Tristessa has another priority: satisfying her addiction. In the end, it is about the impossibility of love.”

Directed by Iona Weissberg, the performances accompany a performance that at times erases the distance between actors and spectators. Story of a love y Lupita thingsby Pérez Prado, are part of the evening’s repertoire.

In those pages, Moncada found an American fascinated by the country he discovered at every step.

“It was easy for us to find texts that spoke from Mexico about migration or about those on the other side, but we were not very clear about how our neighbors see us. The novelist is interested and moved by those spirits that move around him and wonders why they live that way.”

The national theater coordinator keeps in mind an observation by Kerouac.

“He says that, no matter how tragic the situation of Mexicans is, they live it with joy, while in the United States a gloomy vision predominates. He was surprised by that optimism, that joy for life.”

“Pre-digital nomads”

This comparison with the present led him to include the work in the cycle distant neighbors and in the program Poetry Tuesday. The characters that Kerouac portrayed seven decades ago remind him of certain communities that inhabit the capital today.

“Those were a kind of pre-digital nomads. They came here, but they continued working for American publishers. They did not really integrate into society and built closed circles. There is a correspondence with many temporary inhabitants of the city who work remotely and do not mix socially either.”

Luis Mario Moncada also appreciates the novelist’s sensitivity towards those who live on the margins. “He is almost a passive being who watches how the world moves around him. That sensitivity makes him look with compassion on people who are usually left out of the productive world.”

With the performances of the members of the stable cast of the CNT: David Hevia, Pedro Martínez Arredondo, Itzel Riqué and Alberto Santiago, accompanied by Salvador Carmona and the resident musicians Sebastián Espinosa Carrasco and Yurief Nieves, the premiere brought together representatives of the press and special guests. Between smoke, songs and memories of another era, the public said goodbye to the evening with prolonged applause.

The functions of In Triste They will continue on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. in the Héctor Mendoza room (Francisco Sosa 159, Colonia Del Carmen, Coyoacán), until July 28. Admission is free, with prior registration by email [email protected]