Photo Flash: Howard Collado Stars in GOLONDRINAS (SWALLOWS), Beginning Tonight at La MaMa

On March 15, the majority party in Venezuela gave President Nicolas Maduro the power to temporarily govern Venezuela by decree, thanks to a law described by opposition activists as a measure to cover up the government's weaknesses and to subjugate the Venezuelan people. It is the second time Maduro has been given such powers and the late populist Hugo Chávez, Maduro's mentor and predecessor, ruled by fiat four times in his 14-year tenure. In her modern tragedy "Golondrinas (Swallows)," Venezuelan expatriate playwright/director/actor Aminta De Lara likens the nation's acquiescence to the submissiveness of a family to a dominating and abusive father. De Lara will direct the piece, in a translation by Francine Jacome, at La MaMa tonight, April 16 to 26. Scroll down for a look at him onstage!

In an apartment in Caracas, two abused daughters discover their father slumped half-dead in an armchair, a liquor bottle frozen in his hand, while anti-government protests, counter-demonstrations and government retaliations rage outside. Sound, images and text references make us clearly understand that in this play, domestic abuse in a patriarchal family is a metaphor for suppression and domination by a patriarchal government. One of the sisters, Carmen Elena, is a supporter of the dictator and has spent a good part of her life placating men who abuse her. "What we need here," she declares, "is someone with balls. Someone with an iron fist who can put an end to all this nonsense." Her older sister Claudia, a stiff-necked doctor and cafe society dissident, retorts, "Just the way Father did." The sisters struggle throughout the play with what to do with the unconscious man: whether to get him rescued and possibly saved (which would be difficult, getting an ambulance through the turmoil), to let him die, or to suffocate him as a coup de grace.

A series of rear projected images of the crowd becomes a virtual fourth character in the play. Seen through transparent screens placed between the actors, it is a constant connection between the intimate story of the members of this family and the grand story of the violent repression taking place outside their windows.

According to De Lara, the two daughters represent the polarization of society under totalitarianism, in which some people submit to it but some rebel. When one side of society is abused, both are, but the factions struggle against each other and the path to healing the fragmentation is to be able to unite in acknowledging the common abuser. De Lara refers to the play as a Modern Tragedy because there is a fate for everyone who faces a dictator, even a dying one.

In the title, "Golondrinas" means Swallows, a species of bird who always return home and cry to go back. This refers to the longing for home that affects all Venezuelans who are separated from their mother country.

The actors are Robert Ramos, Howard Collado and Marion Elaine. Music is by Gina Monc and María Eugenia Atilano. Visual effects are by Helena Acosta and Carlos Ayesta.

The April 16 show is gala benefitting Foro Penal Venezolano (Venezuelan Penal Forum), an NGO that advocates for victims of political violence in Venezuela. Tickets are $75 and can be ordered at http://www.ticketderby.com/event/?id=248739.

Photo Credit: Carlos Ayesta

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