Find out what’s on the program for the 25th anniversary edition of Santiago a Mil

The festival will be held from January 3-21, 2018 with pieces from 23 countries –including Singapore and Estonia for the first time– and a strong street theater element, involving 30 of the country’s cities and Metropolitan Region neighborhoods.

For this anniversary edition and under the slogan #lafiestadelteatro, Santiago a Mil, which has long made January a month of celebrations, aims to put the public and those who have made this adventure possible at the heart of its activities. That is why, on January 3, we will open the festival together with every theater venue in the country that wants to take part to show the community the valuable living patrimony they house.

Those who have been key to the festival’s history will also appear on the program, as well as those who have strived to maintain theater as a vocation and art form over all these years. In recognition, the program will include work by the company formerly known as La Troppa with the revival of their emblematic plays Pinocchio and Gemelos; the Teatro del Silencio, present with the premiere on the streets of ¡Oh! Socorro in a journey through the world of Samuel Beckett from Juan Radrigán’s perspective; the now-defunct Teatro La Memoria will be remembered with an exhibition about its history at the Camilo Henríquez Theater, honoring the work of its creator, Alfredo Castro, to whom tribute will be paid in this new version. In the same way, Teatro Ictus, Gran Circo Teatro, Teatro El Aleph, La Re-sentida and Teatro y Su Doble will also participate in this strong line-up.

An important street theater program will help us reinforce this aim, which is why the tribute to Andrés Pérez, one of our most important inspirations, should be highlighted at this point, with a co-production directed by María Izquierdo and music by Angela Acuña. Andrés Pérez de memoria will go over his great legacy and involves some of the stars of La Negra Ester.

Theater, music, dance, performance, circus, street theater, aerial theater, installations, and interventions will take over 35 Chilean neighborhoods (21 in the Metropolitan Region) and in seven of the country’s regions: Tarapacá, Antofagasta, Valparaíso, the Metropolitan Region, Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins, Maule and Bío-Bío. The selection of Chilean plays from different areas of the country stands out, such as Hortensia (Concepción); Lickan Tatai, la amistad de los pueblos (Antofagasta) and Se vende, precio conversable (Valparaíso).

Since five plays were performed in 1994 at what was then called the Teatro a Mil Exhibition –Historia de la Sangre, Taca taca mon amour, Pinocchio, La manzana de Adán and Los días tuertos– there have been 887 performances in Chile and 366 abroad, bringing together each year around 900 artists from all over the world (from a total of 45 countries) and a total audience of 10,445,500.

The greats from the theater world didn’t want to miss it either

After his debut in Chile with Días felices in 2011, the renowned North American director and visual artist Robert Wilson returns with Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett. So too does the Belgian Ivo Van Hove, who won praise for Opening Night in 2014, with two works based on masterpieces by Bergman, After the rehearsal/Persona. Swiss Christoph Marthaler will tread Chilean soil again after his highly praised play Protegerse del futuro in 2011, captivating audiences with his musical theater, this time under the name King Size, as well as living theater legend, Krystian Lupa from Poland, with Wycinka Holzfällen (Tala), following the successful performance of Persona/Marilyn that was part of the 2011 program. Frenchman Angelin Preljocaj is also back for seconds, performing Centaures/Still Life at Metropolitan Region cultural centers for free.

As part of this anniversary edition, other greats will make their debut at Santiago a Mil. Current director of the Venice Theater Biennale, Antonio Latella, comes to the festival for the first time with a daring reinterpretation of Eduardo De Filippo’s classic, Natale in casa Cupiello. From Brazil, the outstanding cinema and theater director Felipe Hirsch will visit us with a piece filled with literature, music and theater called A Tragédia e a Comédia Latino-Americana, Estonia, for its part, will give us a lesson in classical theater with Libahunt (La mujer loba) and German Antú Romero (son of a Chilean mother) will make us witnesses to an outrageous version of The Odyssey, DIE ODYSEE. Eine Irrfahrt nach Homer.

In dance, famous international companies will perform their successful shows. From Singapore, choreographer Choy Ka Fai brings us Softmachine: Rianto & Surjit, a theatrical portrait of the work of artists Rianto (Indonesia) and Surjit (India). From Australia, the Sydney Dance Company will present Frame of Mind/Lux Tenebris. From Italy, Moving with Pina invites us to journey through the incomparable world of one of the most important artists to ever take part in Santiago a Mil, Pina Bausch, hand-in-hand with the Italian dancer Cristiana Morganti. From Switzerland, the Spanish choreographer known worldwide as La Ribot will win us over with Another Distinguée and, from Argentina, the Krapp company will present El Futuro de los Hipopótamos. As has already been announced, the Canadians of Le Grand Continental® will catch everyone’s attention with their large-scale choreography for the people.

In music, the program is led by Síntesis, one of the most emblematic groups in contemporary Cuban music and Kid Koala, a world-famous Canadian DJ who returns to Chie with Vinyl Vaudeville, a live music show. There will also be Tocatas Mil announced soon.

La Fiesta del Teatro takes over the streets

Forming part of our history, French company Royal de Luxe, which brought us the unforgettable Pequeña Gigante, returns this time with a stationary, intimate and special piece, Miniatures. The Spaniards from Xarxa Teatre are also back with their latest street show, Fahrenheit Ara Pacis, asking us to reflect on peace. Aerial theater is present with As the world tipped (El mundo al revés) from the United Kingdom, all about the disaster on earth as seen from the sky, to be performed in different neighborhoods and cities. Venus, by a French street theater company, follows in the footsteps of a huge wicker puppet more than seven meters high. Circus is not left out either, with old and young enjoying the antics of Catalan group Los Barlou who, with Set Up, make us part of a world full of unexpected events, laughs and surprises, as well as Impulso by the Chilean Circo Balance.

Latin America: topics that concern our society today

The search for identity, Latin America’s place in the world and how to rewrite our history are some of the topics the region’s plays deal with. At the same time, these stand out for their critical and relevant approach. As always, Argentina leads this group with a large number of current examples: El mar de noche by Santiago Loza, directed by Guillermo Cacace; Próximo by Claudio Tolcachir; Tu veneno en mí by Manuel García and Astronautas, a premiere by Mariano Tenconi, co-produced with Chile.

One of the main stars this year is Brazilian Felipe Hirsch, who will accompany us with Democracia, a work specially created to celebrate 25 years of the festival, based on fiction written by different Latin American authors. Mexico, on the other hand, will be represented by Del Manantial del corazón, Uruguay by El bramido de Düsseldorf and Operación Cóndor, el vuelo de Laura and Bolivia with Ukhupacha.

Made in Chile

Made up of 19 members from the world of theater and dance and from the cities of Antofagasta, Concepción and Valparaíso, the 2018 jury watched 147 plays and selected 23. The fact they are almost all by Chilean playwrights stands out: El Dylan; El Hotel; La Trágica Agonía de un Pájaro Azul; Locutorio; Nimby (nosotros somos los buenos) and the work of Luis Sepúlveda, with an adaptation of Historia de una gaviota y del gato que le enseñó a volar.

In the same way, the search for new styles is highlighted, with sound taking a leading role in Momento-Variación; BARDO, un viaje sonoro por el mundo de Shakespeare; Ópera and Fin, while the classic La viuda de Apablaza with its contemporary touches and Tum, a creation for early childhood, particularly stand out.

In the Traditional and Dance in the City sections, new dance formats appear, with La Morada, Prácticas de vuelo (o conversaciones sobre el amor), Oropel, Las danzas del futuro. In the Movement section, it’s Desplazamientos, where will be performances of Ciervo / ejercicio para un dúo, Ejercicio 3. El encuentro, Los cuerpos que habito and Void.

As far as Teatro a Mil Foundation co-productions are concerned, Estado Vegetal by Manuela Infante will be performed again, as well as the premiere of Desobediencia de Marte by Álvaro Viguera. Some of the tributes to Violeta Parra in this, the hundred-year anniversary of her birth, will be revisited with Ayudándole a sentir by Juan Pablo Peragallo; Violeta Parra: al centro de la injusticia by Rodrigo Pérez and Paloma ausente by La Patogallina. In addition, Ignacio Achurra – together with the Colectivo Contrataque- will premiere Yo soy la hija de la furia on the streets.

Tickets for all the Santiago a Mil events are already on sale at the Theater Box Office at the Costanera Center, the GAM Center, www.fundacionteatroamil.cl and www.daleticket.cl.

Santiago a Mil 2018 is presented by the Teatro a Mil Foundation and BHP/Minera Escondida under the Law of Cultural Donations and is supported by the National Council for Culture and the Arts, with the patronage of the Costanera Center and the collaboration of the Imagen de Chile Foundation and the National Tourism Service (SERNATUR).