>>PREVIEW
MACULA: A RITUAL OF MIRACLES
Runs until May 12
Maple Salsa Theatre and One Yellow Rabbit
Motel (Epcor Centre)
A celebration of motherhood from two cultures will take the stage in Calgary on May 2. Maple Salsa Theatre Laboratory’s creation MACULA: A Ritual of Miracles melds the Aztec and Spanish stories of the images of Tonantzin-Guadalupe, reflecting research ensemble members conducted in Mexico.
"It is the second production that we are doing as Maple Salsa," says Javier Vilalta, director and one of the founders of the company. "This one was originally based on an image of a virgin, the virgin of Guadalupe that is in Mexico City."
The Virgin of Guadalupe is a Roman-Catholic Mexican icon, considered by some to be the most important apparition of the mother Mary. The grounds of the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadelupe, located in Mexico City, is the site where the icon is located (where the largest pilgrimage to Mary in the world takes place).
"There’s a lot of respect for her in Latin America and the world," Vilalta says, noting the controversy surrounding reports of images seen reflected in the icon’s eyes. Reflections are found in human eyes due in part to the macula, the centre located in the retina of the eye that serves as the show’s namesake.
Vilalta, along with ensemble members Elan Pratt and Kevin MacDonnell, went to Mexico to do the research. "As the research evolved, we tried to find the beginnings of this image. I discovered that the Aztecs actually had their own version of this mother figure, a goddess called Tonantzin," Vilalta says. " So I stopped doing a docudrama that talked about the controversy of the virgin’s eyes, and we decided to go back to the beginnings of the veneration of the mother figure from two completely different religions, the Catholic and the Aztec culture, and particular aspects where both mythologies blend."
Both Pratt and MacDonnell found different experiences of the image than they expected. "What helped me the most when I was there is that wherever you go, you always see an image of her, whether it’s on the side of a truck or on somebody’s house," says Pratt. "I think that’s what impacted me the most."
"Javier explained to us before we left how big an image and icon it is down there, and I thought I understood it," adds MacDonnell. "But when you get down there, you see people crawling on their knees to the front of the church, or parades of people walking down the street to the Basilica, carrying her image in the air. It’s pretty mind blowing."
The results of the traveling ensemble were blended with the talents of Norma Lewis, Emily Talia, Derek Paulich and Whitney Huget-Penner to create an original spectacle of movement, theatre and visual art (masks and puppetry included) involving rituals and mythology of pre-Hispanic legends.
"The show itself is not religious. It has no religious undertones or affiliations," Vilalta says, noting it is more about how most cultures have veneration for the mother figure.
"It is a very movement based piece," adds Lewis, who is Macula’s narrator. "There’s a lot of tribal energy that’s needed to do this piece. I think it’s hard to evoke that energy just being born and raised in Canada, to evoke that tribal energy to believe a story that’s so surreal, because really, it’s beyond belief. But it was real to these people, and now we have to make it real to us." |
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