«Granma. Trombones from Havana» – Rimini Protokoll (Chile)

Co-founded by german artists Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel,   Rimini Protokoll is a theater-label that works with different constellations, expanding scenic experiments in order to investigate new perspectives on reality. Developing interventions and installation performances, the company combines technology and interactivity to create social simulations based on theatrical formats.

«Granma. Trombones from Havana», presented at the Santiago a Mil International Festival, held at the UC Theater. The play proposes an affective historicity of Cuba, created from the intertwining of individual narratives from the actors’ family members. In a collage created by several generations, Milagro Álvarez, Daniel Cruces-Pérez, Christian Paneque and Diana Sainz Mena investigate their grandparents’ personal history with the Cuban Revolution.

Coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the Revolution, the play, which was created in 2019, evokes revolutionary music with the help of composer Ari Benjamin Meyers and four trombones, as the actors put themselves in contact with the practice of the instrument for the first time. In direct reference to the personal story of Sainz Mena, a musician whose grandfather was part of the legendary Cuban orchestra Orquestra Maravillas de Florida, the music is a fundamental element in the play’s plot.

With the support of Pro Helvetia, «Granma. Trombones from Havana» writes collective stories from individual experiences, in an exercise to rescue the memory of a territory that has faced intense economic and socio-political changes, and postulating that the country’s history is still being built.