Good 21st-century variety theatre

Florentina Holzinger is one of the most daring voices in European theatre with proposals that, given what we've seen in this Ophelia’s got talent, show influences of the radical theatre of La Fura dels Baus from a few years ago and parallels with the work of Angélica Liddell or the Brazilian Carolina Bianchi. But, in my opinion, they evoke, due to their content and dramaturgy, or rather their absence, the so-called American vaudeville theatre of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, conveniently updated. A very popular entertainment in which, one after another, musical numbers, dance, acrobatics, fakirism, illusionism, humour, with audience participation, and even biological oddities introduced by a presenter are presented. These kinds of shows were adapted for television after the Second World War.

Holzinger's proposal starts precisely in what looks like a television studio where a talent show is being filmed under the scrutinizing gaze of a jury. We have, therefore, a very good pole dancer, a charming sword swallower, a dancer with functional diversity, and a Houdini-style escapism act that goes wrong... And here the contest ends and we move to the ballroom. Over 150 minutes, an exclusively female company of diverse women, led by the magnificent clown Captain Cook, dances tap, Russian Kalinka, and hits from 1950s Hollywood; they also sing, tattoo a girl from the audience, and, above all, swim in the three pools that dominate the stage, where a woman giving birth is simulated (fantastic humorous touch) or the death of Hamlet's lover, a tremendous rape is narrated, and even the soaking of a large helicopter.

The director says that the proposal explores feminine myths related to water in a physical study of fluctuation, reflection, reproduction, sanitation, and violence. Something is hinted at, but the important thing about this vaudeville theatre is that, in addition to being entertaining and powerfully visual, it has the virtue of not objectifying the female body, as the actresses exhibit a nudity that dispenses with normative beauty. A long and well-deserved final applause.