“I’ve been at it nonstop for three months,” says actor Felipe Castro. No wonder. He has just come down from the stage after rehearsals for La Jaula de las Locas, the musical theater play set to premiere on July 15 at the new Teatro Estudio 13.
This is the first time this piece is staged in Chile. Originally by the Frenchman Jean Poiret, it became a classic through its Broadway adaptation, with music by Jerry Herman. This is the version arriving in the country with an ambitious production – 28 dancers, live orchestra – under the direction of renowned choreographer Eduardo Yedro and produced by Rodrigo Leiva and Ca-Dos Producciones.
Castro was drawn to this play. “I knew it and couldn’t believe they were going to do it because this is a huge play. I always wanted to do it”. So, when he had the chance, he participated in the casting process. “They called me to audition and that’s when I met Eduardo Yedro – he says on the phone with Culto -. And since then it’s been a great surprise and a very, very interesting bond has been created.”
The play tells the story of George and Albin, an adult gay couple who run a nightlife venue in Saint-Tropez called, precisely, La Jaula de las Locas. Everything gets complicated when they receive a visit from Laurent (played in the play by Manuel Castro, also Felipe’s son), who announces he is going to marry Muriel. The mess begins when the families have to meet and the bride’s father turns out to be ultra-conservative and homophobic.
Felipe Castro plays George. “He’s a character I love because he’s the one who controls everything, but he also has infinite patience with his great love, Albin. And the most beautiful thing about this is that it’s a love story, of two men and their son. Just like that. He is a businessman in the 70s, he gets together with Albin and they make a perfect match and together they are dynamite because love is in the middle.”
To prepare the character, Castro had an idea as a core. “My inspiration remains this beautiful thing that is the human person. The person, no last names, no gay, LGBT or heterosexual, bisexual, no, we are people. And that’s the most beautiful thing about this character. That he is a person who fell in love with this other man. In the text he says ‘I was young and I loved you’ And now they are both old.”
Known for his work in soap operas (Champaña, El amor está de moda, Verdades ocultas, etc.), Castro also has extensive experience in musicals. He is the son of a lyrical singer and admits he likes to sing. “I’ve done a lot of these shows, I’ve had great luck in my life. We were able to do Mahagonny once, we’ve done several Brecht pieces. Just last year we did Footloose. I like these shows because they have very, very well-made, very beautiful music.”
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The preparation has been intense. Three months of daily rehearsals of about four hours with a multidisciplinary team. “I’m dead after every rehearsal! There’s a lot of costume, lighting, sound deployment. It’s very attractive from that point of view.” For Castro, the process involved training in singing and also in dancing. “The hardest part is dancing, by far, but here the teacher has helped me a lot and I do my little step! I have my moment. This is one musical number after another, very well performed, very well sung, very well choreographed.”
Besides his theater work in Santiago, Castro lives half the year in Panguipulli. “There we have the Educational Theater of the Arts with the Corporation for the Advancement of Friends of Panguipulli, we inaugurated it four years ago. We have done very well. There we work with students, we do interdisciplinary shows with professionals, also with a lot of music, a lot of orchestra, but above all a lot of community. The work in the regions is very beautiful because Panguipulli is very special, because there we are all equal, it’s very nice.”
-I can’t help but ask about the recent death of Fernando Kliche, with whom you shared soap operas. How do you remember him?
Fernando was a great person. Everyone described him very well, a friend to all, a guy dedicated to audiovisual, theater, the pleasure of life. Very similar to his father [Walter Kliche], well, I worked much more with the father than with him. They have that thing of loving life. It hurt me in my heart, it was unexpected. That’s life.
La Jaula de las Locas premieres this July 15 and besides Felipe Castro, the cast includes Gonzalo Muñoz Lerner, Catherine Mazoyer, Manuel Castro, and Tati Fernández. Tickets are available through TicketPro.
