1972

domenica, ottobre 28, 2007

Il dittatore e l'artista. Titolo di un pregevole libro di Norman Manea sulla Romania di Ceausescu, è per estensione la riflessione sull'eterno rapporto tra satira e regime, metafora della resistenza dell'individuo al totalitarismo. La Birmania non fa eccezione e il musico, il poeta, l'attore sono parte della sua vicenda storica.
Mandalay è bianca e sa di morte. Dispiace darne un giudizio così definitivo ma questa è la sensazione che mi è rimasta dentro dopo averla visitata. Yangon è il ricordo sbiadito di antichi fasti, calpestato dalla moltitudine. Mandalay no, Mandalay è spettrale, come abbandonata dopo un bombardamento e ripopolata a casaccio. Ma nella seconda città del paese la resistenza non nasce solo nei monasteri. Da anni una famiglia paga il suo impegno civile con il carcere e la sorveglianza. Il loro crimine: provare a far ridere dove ridere non è permesso. Par Par Lay, uno dei Moustache Brothers, è di nuovo scomparso:

"Par Par Lay, 25 September, taken away, in the nick, jailbird! His wife has been searching for him everywhere, we don't know where he is!"
Satisfied he has been able to make it clear that his elder brother, known as Par Par Lay, has been arrested, he continues his usual show.
The manic 58-year-old Lu Maw is one of the Moustache Brothers, a family of artists who follow a Burmese tradition known as A-Nyeint - a vaudeville mixture of slapstick, classical dance, sketches and stand-up comedy performed by travelling troupes.
The family is one of the few in Burma who dare to try to talk openly about what happened to their loved ones after the crackdown on anti-government protesters in September.

L'hanno preso così:

About midnight on Sept. 25, his relatives say, the police raided Par Par Lay's home-cum-theater here and took him away. On the same day, at least one other popular comedian who, like Par Par Lay, had previously been imprisoned for his political jokes, a man named Zargana in Yangon, was arrested, according to Amnesty International and local residents.

Par Par Lay ha già fatto questo viaggio altre volte:

In 1990, when the military government rejected the decisive victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in the country's first election in 30 years and placed the pro-democracy leader under house arrest, Par Par Lay was thrown into jail for six months for his political humor.
In 1996, his troupe performed before an audience of 2,000 people, including foreign ambassadors, at the lakeside compound of Aung San Suu Kyi, by then a Nobel Peace laureate. In one skit, Par Par Lay demonstrated a "government dance," a comic rendition of a wily public servant stealing money from the poor.
A videotape of the event shows Aung San Suu Kyi laughing, clearly entertained. The generals were apparently less amused. Par Par Lay and his cousin Lu Zaw, also a comedian, were sentenced to seven years in a labor camp. He was released after five and a half years.

I Moustache Brothers oggi sono confinati in casa e una cantina è diventata il loro scenario. Loro continuano a recitare e a prendere un po' in giro i carcerieri, solo in inglese, solo per gli stranieri. Fuori i soldati a fare la guardia.

"If the government comes and takes his clothes and food, then I will know he is alive," said Ma Win Ma, Par Par Lay's wife. "That is enough. I believe one day he will come back and we can perform together again."
Lu Maw said that when Par Par Lay was in prison camp, he used to perform for other inmates before bed time.
"Maybe he is performing in prison somewhere," Lu Maw said. "Yes, we are afraid. But we keep on going. We just joke. This is our job, our family tradition."

A Mandalay ci siamo persi lo spettacolo. Bisognerà ritornarci.

postato da enzreale | permalink |

A Fabio. A Luisa.