Like a cherished ritual, each of the townsfolk recount the fateful Monday morning when the Vicario twins (the nearly identical Donald Lopez and Francisco Martinez) took their revenge on Santiago Nasar for deflowering their sister. Any one of dozens of people might have been able to stop the brutal knifing right on his doorstep, but somehow the moment eluded them. Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez says they called it a death foretold, meaning that destiny had decreed Nazar's fate.
Jorge Ali Triana's staged version is largely faithful to the Marquez original, and fortunately Repertorio Espanol has an abundance of character actors to realize the imagination of that master storyteller. Two standouts are Denia Brache as the Nasar household's astute maid and Carlos Linares as the vigilant Colonel Lazaro Aponte.
Company stalwart Adria Santana for once has some delightful comic turns as the mother of the unlucky bride Angela Vicario (Selenis Leiva), and she manages to get a few laughs as Santiago Nasar's mother yelling out, "I hate this town!"
Casting for Cronica has disappointments, too. Young, vivacious Juan Sebastian Aragon does not suggest Santiago Nasar's self-confidence born of wealth and womanizing; Ivan Espeche lacks the necessary bravado to play the boastful newcomer Bayardo San Roman. Triana unfortunately plays down Nasar's Arab background, and Alberto Morgan as Padre Amador is nearly the only one in the cast to reflect the presumably Creole makeup of the Colombian town where this honor killing occurs.
Triana uses moveable panels to create an arena-like space in center stage where key events such as the wedding night when Bayardo discovers that his bride Angela Vicario is not a virgin are reenacted. Stylized movements and choral speaking are used to good effect.
