(Failure) Urgent theatrical work

Carol Lopez makes her first showMangione statement‘. Wildly topical theatre. Twenty-four hours earlier, the defense of the accused, Luigi Mangione, had requested the main evidence of the murder Brian ThompsonCEO of UnitedHealthcare, the largest … United States health insurance. It happened one night in early December two years ago. Thompson was shot three times as he was about to enter the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan to meet shareholders. Three words were written on the bullets: “Deny, defend, isolate.” (“Denial, Deposit, Defense”), a trilogy of insurance companies’ “modus operandi.”

The killer, a twenty-seven-year-old handsome Italian-American from a wealthy family with studies at centers of excellence, has become a folk hero: his murder is interpreted as a call to reform the burdensome health insurance system. When he was arrested on December 9, they found $3,000 in his backpack, as well as a gun, ammunition, and a notebook. Crime as an editorial statement.

The author and director assigned eight students from Theater Institute (IT) Drama of current events. The events are presented from different angles: media, insurance company managers, the victim. The angles end up making the same thesis: the privatization of health care puts the lives of those who suffer from it at risk. The result is mixed. Although the inequity of the North American health system is cause for criticism, some nuances beyond the scheme of good and evil are missing. “Do you know how much he earns a year?” one of the characters asks when referring to the murdered man.

If we add to this the lack of coordination between the actors in some moments of the show, we can conclude that this “Mangioni Manifesto” is an urgent and failed theatrical work. The urgency of the facts does not justify writing a text in haste Carol Lopezauthor of meritorious productions such as “VOS”, “Hermanas” or “Bonus Track”. The denunciatory tone of the piece culminates in verses by Brecht and a demand from scholarship holders. The IT students still have some acting lessons left. Or a speech that reduces the enthusiasm of youth.

The session limit has been reached

• Access to premium content is open courtesy of the organization you’re in, but at the moment there are too many users logged in at any one time. Please try again after a few minutes.

Try again

You have exceeded the session limit

• You can start only three sessions at a time. We’ve closed the oldest session so you can continue browsing the rest without limits.

Keep browsing

Report an error

About the author
Sergey Doria

A journalist and PhD in information science, he joined the ABC in 1995 where he works as culture editor, theater and literary critic and columnist. Author of several novels and professor of journalism history.