Theater festival brings Romeo and Juliet to northern Chile

More than 2,000 people packed into the central Plaza of Iquique in northern Chile on Jan. 10 to watch a creative and visually spectacular rendition of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
The show marked this year’s inauguration in Iquique of the Teatro a Mil festival, a celebration of theater and street performance running until Jan. 22. 
“To provide free access [beyond Santiago] to culture and pieces of theatrical excellence is to achieve a dream for this foundation,” said Carmen Romero, the executive director of Teatro a Mil. “This is the third year we’ve held performances in Iquique, and it’s always been a joy to come.” 
The staging of this event in Iquique, in the Tarapacá Region of northern Chile, is particularly significant for the growth and decentralization of Chilean culture.  

While the Santiago a Mil festival is currently enlivening the streets and theaters of the nation’s capital, it is far more rare for international productions to venture into the other 14 regions of Chile. 
“It’s very important to bring Teatro a Mil each January to Iquique,” said Ivan Arriagada, president of the mining company funding the event, BHP Billiton Pampa Norte. “We feel the dissemination of culture is essential to the development of the region.” 
The play, named “Love never sleeps: Stories of Montagues and Capulets,” was performed by the Teatro di Bergamo Tascabile, an Italian production company whose mission is “to take theater where theater does not usually reach.”
Shakespeare’s tragic tale has been subject to innumerable cinematic and theatrical incarnations, releasing the protagonists from the binds of Shakespeare's original discourse. 
Teatro di Bergamo Tascabile takes this premise and experiments with bizarre spectacles of traditional Asian dance, fireworks and grotesque macabre imagery. 
“When it comes down to the square, anything can happen,” said one member of the production team. 
The production will also be performed this weekend in Santiago on Jan. 13-14.