Theater

VACA

  • Dirección de Guillermo Calderón
  • Country: Chile
  • Premiere: August 2024
  • Target audience: +14 years
  • Length: 75 minutes

A group of friends survive by delivering pizza on a motorcycle around Santiago, Chile. Their lives change when they must take care of a sick cow. They could sell her to a butcher or heal her to sell her milk. Little by little they become immersed in a conflict that can only end in violence.

Three friends survive the post-Covid inflation crisis by delivering pizza in their motorcycles around Santiago de Chile. One day one of them decides to help a friend by keeping and taking care of a milking cow in her backyard. The cow is probably stolen, so no questions are asked. But after a few weeks the friends realize nobody is going to ever pick up the cow. They immediately start discussing about what to do with the cow. They consider milking the cow and selling its raw milk. But eventually they receive a hefty offer from a local butcher.

They have to make a difficult choice because they are desperate for money but have also developed a true love for their cow. In their confusion they ask for help from several dubious characters that pull them deeper into an underworld of paranoia and violence.

A violent ending becomes almost inevitable, but the story is more than a thriller, because it is wrapped in a puzzling mystery, as the characters once and again repeat that they live inside what they call Cultural Television. The reality in which they live is called into question. The threat might not come from the people who want to kill the cow. The danger might be the actual experience of trying to survive as subjects to sophisticated propaganda. In this world of social decay and violence someone might be advocating for a new regime able to crush all cows and rule, again, from the military barracks.

Images:

Credits:

Cast

Luis Cerda, Camila Brito, Francisca Lewin

Integral Design

Manuela Mege

Composition

Ximena Sánchez

Artistic Production

María Paz González

Direction assistant

Ximena Sánchez

Playwright and director

Guillermo Calderón

Coproduction

Fundación Teatro a Mil, ArtsEmerson

Collaborators

Goethe-Institut, Noorderzon / Grand Theatre Groningen, Nationaltheater Weimar

Biographies:

Guillermo Calderón

Playwright, theater director, screenwriter and film director. Academic of the Faculty of Arts of the Catholic University of Chile.
As a director and playwright he has created a line of creations that challenges the audience based on its political content and the physical and emotional dedication of the actors. His works have been presented in countless countries with the best reviews, including Neva, Clase, Diciembre, Villa, Kuss, B, Beben, Escuela, Mateluna, Goldrausch, Colina, Bavaria. His film scripts include El Club, Ema, Neruda, Araña, and El Conde (Best Screenplay, Venice Film Biennale, 2023.)


Guillermo Calderón Awards:

2023 Premio Osella en Festival de Cine de Venecia

Best Screenplay for El Conde


2016 Premio Platino

Best Screenplay for Neruda


2008 Premio Altazor

Categoría Dramaturgia por Escuela


2007 Premio Altazor de las Artes Nacionales

Categoría Artes Escénicas Dramaturgia por Neva


2006 Premio del Círculo de Críticos de Arte

Mejor Obra por Neva


Previous dates:

August 2024

Estreno KunstFest Weimar, Alemania. Premier Kunsfest Weimar, Germany.


August - September 2024

Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival Groningen, Holanda


Desarrollado por AW lab