A 'queer' Shakespeare with music by Nathy Peluso opens the Mérida Classical Theater Festival

You have to be in front of Moria Casán to understand the dimension of the character.

Tall ―she is 1.74 meters tall―, corpulent, her lips always half-open in front of the cameras and a feline gaze, Moria, as she is called in Argentina, is a magnet on stage.

At 75, she proclaims herself a “

”;

she also "an

within the star system" who has survived every possible battle for more than half a century.

This Friday she will change her sex to be Shakespeare's Julius Caesar who will open the Merida International Classical Theater Festival.

It is impossible to be less classic than Moria Casán.

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Nathy Peluso, new power

"After debuting naked on stage I can do anything," says Moria Casán by phone.

Her career began after a law exam at the University of Buenos Aires.

From there she went straight to the revue theater.

Between feathers and variety numbers, Moria Casán appeared without clothes.

"They asked me if I felt modesty and no, I felt burning, because I went to buy a razor to shave my

she says, and she laughs out loud.

She modulates her voice, thinks about her answers and knows an icon.

Did Shakespeare scare you?

Moria fears nothing.

And to those who do not see her on a classical theater stage, she reminds them that she has been one of the protagonists of

, the work of the Spaniard Santiago Moncada that does not stop selling out on the mythical Corrientes street in Buenos Aires.

This mixture of television star and popular put Moria in the head of Argentine director José María Muscari.

At 45 years old, Muscari is a production machine.

He arrives in Spain with more than 70 premieres behind him, many times simultaneous, always transgressive and always very media.

This is his first international tour.

Another image of Moria Casán in 'Julio César'.

"The staging is like a pairing between Versace and Andy Warhol, and Moria has a lot to do with that," says Muscari.

Because the

who arrives in Mérida is a

version , where the male characters are represented by women and vice versa.

“At this time when what it is to be a man or a woman is so tense, if power is feminine or masculine, I found it interesting that the show talks about it without having to name it.

I had the intuition that changing the genres and not putting anything related to the sexuality of the characters was going to make a dent”, explains the director.

The scenery is reduced to huge video screens and the costumes are reminiscent of those class B movies that in the sixties pretended to represent the future.

The music of the singer Nathy Peluso completes a picture as unlikely as it is powerful: do not forget that it is a work of the official circuit of the Buenos Aires Theater Complex, where it premiered on May 7.

Along with Moria, there are leading figures on the Argentine scene, such as Marita Ballesteros, Alejandra Radano, Malena Solda, Mario Alarcón, Mariano Torre and Mirta Wons.

"The context made this fantasy possible for me, which was to put together a cast where the only dissonant thing is Moria, which is already very disruptive and challenging in itself."

The experiment was an unprecedented success in Buenos Aires.

The idea of ​​seeing Moria in an official theater was irresistible to the Argentine public.

Intellectuals, critics and actors mingled at the Cine Teatro El Plata, reopened for the occasion, with people who knew the actress from television or gossip magazines and who had never set foot in a theater.

The result was a euphoria without nuances and locations that sold out in a few hours.

In the neighborhood it was a commotion.

The Cine Teatro El Plata is in Mataderos, an area where until just a month ago the market where cattle was slaughtered worked.

In the nineties, Moria had a character that she called

, a woman with a loud wig and a tight dress who made obscene gestures for the camera.

And people don't forget;

It was two months to a full room.

The entire 'Julio César' team, with Moria Casán in the center of the second row and José María Muscari on the left. Jero Morales (EFE)

Moria Casán is aware of the risk she took before the public and critics when she said yes to Muscari.

Julius Caesar ,

we are going to break rules.

To the purists I say to refrain.

If they like it, fine, and if they don't like it, I don't care.

I'm going to have a good time”, challenges the actress.

The director says that when he was asked to open the Mérida Festival, he was asked if he considered himself up to the task.

She didn't hesitate.

She already had in her suitcase a version of

, by Sophocles, which she called

In 2013, she premiered

by Federico García Lorca, and five years later

by Bertolt Brecht

But this is the first time that he leaves home with one of his works.

"The version I do is about the original text and characters, what drives the plot and the situations are from the original," explains Muscari.

“But I made a pasteurization that concentrates the actions and disputes in only ten roles, eight female and two male.

And above all I mixed the historical concept with something of the contemporary order, linked to the

”.

There are comedy passes, constant references to the Mataderos neighborhood and phrases that mischievously speak of local politics.

In the version that arrives in Mérida, the script has been adapted so as not to lose the local spontaneity.

“Instead of naming the pizzeria

we will talk about a place there,” says Moria Casán.

There will be no problem with the music of Nathy Peluso, known on both shores.

Muscari has always been a transgressor and today as yesterday he trusts his products.

“Of course I would love for Spain, the public and the critics to be crossed by the work, moved and mobilized like here in Argentina”, he says.

Moria Casán will be there, leading the spell.

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