Fiesta is a traveling show that transforms the streets into a South American party. Drum beats, three-meter-tall characters with papier-mâché faces, colorful patched-up costumes, flags and whistles, fires. Fiesta is approaching, people are getting ready to follow the cheerful and imaginative parade. Suddenly, a stop: the spectators stand in a circle to watch the fight between a bandit and Erendira’s lover, a duel followed by a wild race made of jumps and acrobatic dances on stilts. Then, everyone advances from scene to scene: in an onomatopoeic mix of languages, the actors tell little burlesque stories including that of a dramatic shipwreck, that of the turbulent rendezvous of four lovers, that of Erendira mistreated and humiliated by her grandmother for having set fire to her father’s house. Various popular songs and those from the Italian anarchist tradition are accompanied by the accordion and comment on the action. And little by little, the city changes face, lending itself to its new function as a theatre backdrop.
