FADE – Absolutely stunning hysterics and this is a very entertaining Spanish Tele Novella, an insightful drama with comedy, brought vividly to life, on stage at Parramatta. Two latinx (Hispanic = Latino American) work in the same Los Angeles building. Lucia (Camila Ponte Alvarez) originally from Chicago, is a Latina and a successful Mexican-born novelist, now the fish-out-of-water female diversity candidate, barely surviving in the white all-male writers room, writing for a weekly television show. She creates a very one-sided friendship, with the Latino janitor named Abel (Caspar Hardaker), and he was formerly employed as a Los Angeles fireman.
 

Only when experienced VIA spoken Spanish together with spoken English, FADE is just perfect, and is a very highly recommended show, and that show is hugely entertaining with five stars out of five stars, for both the delightful script and the cast of two superb actors who have interesting and very detailed back-stories. Both actors provide delicious character-driven performances, creating an “award-winnning reality”. Often provided, for some parts of the play that are spoken in Spanish, there are English language surtitles. Still completely unable to decide exactly why did the playwright choose to frequently use, deliberately inaccurate English language surtitles. There is of course the forever undeniable impact on the perceived audience experience, and typically worth only four stars out of five stars precisely because of the deliberately inaccurate English language surtitles.

HOWEVER for a Spanish speaking audience, all would very quickly notice that the English Language surtitles often did NOT match the spoken dialogue. “Always translate meaning and not just the words, to ensure that the audience gets the point, clearly and precisely.” Easily reminded of the informative subtitles paradigm, as was used in the 1977 movie ANNIE HALL, which used the clever paradigm technique to provide subtitles, that contradict the spoken dialogue.

The two actors, appear to be native speakers of the Spanish Language, and these two people are participating in the same conversation, and both fully understand all the nuances and the exact meaning of each and every spoken word. From the script, the following is an early example. I know precisely what the Spanish word MIERDA means, and translating that Spanish word to MOTHER-FUCKER is very wrong. So with such a very different emphasis, why mislead the Australian audience, by changing the meaning from SHIT to MOTHER-FUCKER, and completely contradict the spoken dialogue?

On the opening Night, the deep and meaningful dialogue caused frequent laughter, from the female audience members.

SPOILER AHEAD – Throughout the play, there is frequent course language spoken by Lucia. However there is one specific word fully utilised by Lucia (Camila Ponte Alvarez), and spoken just the one time near the end of the play. Her perfectly timed performance, and the physical emphasis in the way that she speaks the English word CUNT, is just the best of the best and must be experienced. Very Highly Recommended.

 

STARRING
Caspar Hardaker
Camila Ponte Alvarez

CREATIVES
Playwright – Tanya Saracho
Director – Jeneffa Soldatic
Costume Designer – Rita Naidu
Set Designer – Melanie Liertz
Sound Designer Daniel Herten
Lighting Designer – Jasmine Rizk
Stage Manager – Chloe Young
Dialect Coach – Linda Nicholls-Gidley

 

SHOW-TIMES – 29th July 2023 until 5th August 2023.

DURATION – 125 minutes, and there is NO interval.

EXPECT – Adult themes, and very strong coarse language, spoken in Spanish/English plus written in English. Age recommendation 15+

RIVERSIDE THEATRES WEBSITE – https://riversideparramatta.com.au/whats-on/fade/

TICKETS – https://boxoffice.riversideparramatta.com.au/WEBPAGES/EntaWebShow/ShowCalendar.aspx

Production photography by Phil Erbacher.

RIVERSIDE THEATRES is located at the corner of 353 Church Street and Market Street, Parramatta, NSW. Nearby is the LIGHT RAIL tram stop called PRINCE ALFRED SQUARE (and those light rail trams might be operating from late 2023).

 

MAP – https://www.google.com/maps/?q=-33.810166,151.004299