the lion sleeps now (the public too)

The subject: three friends share their experiences in a large house in the countryside. Dueso warns in the program that his objective is “to inhabit the theater from emotions and feelings, and not only those which correspond to the characters, the actresses and the actors, but also those of the spectators, of the public”. First goal missed: In the long hour and a half of a play, we had never felt so much silence from the audience: not a laugh, not an exclamation. And the cheesy voiceover is worth it.

Dueso requires that performers “be willing to play with all of their life experience (no need to show or explain it) to truly immerse themselves”: It’s been a long time since we met such fake characters like the three friends who complain without listening to each other: one is writing a novel, another is a taxi driver who is a victim of rape and the third, an actress, has to have her breast cut out because of cancer.

The problem with ‘Jambo Bwana’ is that it neither makes you laugh nor move you. More than a Christmas story – the action takes place during these holidays – it is a story which wanders without rhythm or meaning. Despite the professionalism of the three protagonists –Montse German, Antonia Jaume, Àurea Márquez– there is nowhere to save her. Neither the actresses nor the sets of Sébastien Brosa or the original music of Barbara Granados.

And to complete the creation, the author takes out an African mantero from his sleeve to dance a few dances for five minutes, repeating the ‘Hakuna Matata” and end this nonsense with the useful “The lion is sleeping now”: “Ohi’mbube, ohi’mbube. “It will perhaps be to accompany the public in their drowsiness.